#◾ what looks so strong is so delicate — headcanon

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Little things Ras does with the companions of BG3:

When Karlach gets her second upgrade he will always find little ways of touching her, since she's missed it so much. Pat on the shoulder, nudging so on. And he actively tries to be happy around her.

When people hit on Astarion he mad dogs them until they leave. Yes, Astarion can say no himself. Handle himself. But since no gods came to his aid, no soul. He will at least do this until Astarion finds it easier to say no.

Will just ask Gale some random academic question regarding magic and let him ramble off. He doesn't understand how Gale thinks he needs more; to be more. He knows so much as it is. Also asks him about his great cooking recipes! Ras loves cooking too.

Respects Shadowheart's secrecy, but also drops little crumbs of himself and always shows great appreciation when she does the same. Always reminds her it's okay to feel lost and start over.

Shares battle tactics with Lae'zel while finding ways to show her fun and other aspects of life on the Material can be fun, by linking it back to how it would make her a better fighter.

Goes to Minthara for wisdom, even if he doesn't actually need to. Drow women are as strong-willed as any. More so. He doesn't know what it's like to lose a connection to a powerful being, that is wanted. But she doesn't need it. Her convictions are strong enough. Maybe another god will see this and come to her. Maybe.

He rests with Halsin when he just wants to be soft. Talk about cute animals and how he loves boring things. He doesn't have to be angry, or scary and he feels like he can be depressed for his own issues and not seem like he's overshadowing someone.

Has Wyll tell him stories of his exploits to remind him, horns are just horns. And not every hero needs to be some human with a perfect record. Real heroes, as cheesy as it is are based on their actions and hearts.

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// And as much as Ras can be a downright freak. I'm telling you domestic shit is the easiest way to get him getting you in a mating press.

When I say domestic life is his biggest kink, I am not being dramatic..

It's probably why once he's in a committed relationship man is always trying to smash. He will try and get you to spend the day with him just having sex and eating when needed.

His sex drive is insane.

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Because I'm chatting with @spiderwarden, now I'm thinking about the companions finding out Ras has never had sex consensually. And has been too shy/insecure to seek out people in brothels.

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Dagon and The Chained God

I would like to first start before going into this long post about Ras' ties with Dagon and Dagon's plans, is this is a conversion from Ras' original backstory from the campaign and world he was made for almost two decades ago. At the time we didn't know this much about Faerun's origins nor the Abyss' very extensive history as this was around the time of 3.5 and I think some info just wasn't widely known. So I had no idea how well Ras' shift over really would be.

While I do not think I will completely turn Ras' BG 3 timeline into a divergent durge verse, as I think people do not like roleplaying with powerful characters, or characters with such grand backstories or tied to such great plots that they feel like a second wheel.

However! This is always there casually hanging out in the background if people ever want to tap into it ooc or ic.

The history of Faerun is a wild one, and the start of the multiverse and all that came before most common knowledge in the realms is hard to navigate because time isn't a thing, and when all reality was made by forgotten elder gods, where reality is a mere afterthought of their dreams after they left...it gets sticky.

But the Abyss is alive, and something mad rests within it. Chained and eager to be free. Something old, and long forgotten save by those who drove it mad. Who allowed this chained god to fling open the gates that stopped the Far Realms, the living chaos and madness of long-gone gods to come forth.

Dagon is older than the Abyss itself like the other obyrith demon lords. They drove Tharizdun mad promising him power in exchange for setting them free. The plan didn't succeed but it didn't completely fail. The Abyss grows and the Blood Wars acts as a distraction to hide this. How it is consuming the Astral Sea and in time all.

Setbacks have happened. The "lesser" Tanar'ri forged by them rebelled and now the dominating force in the Abyss. However, Dagon hasn't forgotten the real endgame. The Spellweavers caused a dramatic shift in the timeline, gods sprung forth when there were none, it changed everything but also offered a new opportunity.

A place that is wrong because of pride? He could use this as his playground. Whisper more madness and promises to the one chained. A new deal. Take control of this forsaken timeline, and bring all the multiverse to heel. Why not?

Let the mad god be a puppet overseer like Ao, while Dagon controlled him and all things hidden and forbidden, all knowledge his, shadows and dark depths bending to him, so such mistakes never happen again. But someone must be chained to the Abyss, keep the seeds of chaos somewhat contained. A new Prince of Demons. But he learned long ago, that simply forging something out of pure evil souls will not work. He needed something with lingering care, but broken. So a small part of them would never overstep. Generations of failed offspring when finally Raserei was born. And his soul was everything he needed.

|||||||||||||| Please feel free to ask about this or use it in our threads as you see fit, but also, again, please note it is okay if you wish for most of this to be ignored. I totally get why.

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// Let's take a moment to talk about Ras' body dysmorphia. Because while I sometimes hit on it, and Ras constantly dismisses compliments because he truly does not see himself the way others do.

This scene offers a good window because the way Thisobald looks is almost exactly what Ras sees in a mirror, which is why he can't look at himself in one for more than a few seconds. He is disgusted by what he sees.

Also, while the game offers two body types and Male presenting type 2 does best fit Ras, his actual build is more akin to this:

He eats his emotions and most anything that gets in his way, and while some of this is controllable part of it isn't. Like when he falls into a rage and his demonic blood assumes control. He's turned on his allies in combat because of it. And let's be real binge eating as a coping mechanism is a real thing since he has no interest in sex unless he's in a committed relationship.

So Ras sees this fat bloated monster, who constantly save for the events of BG 3, is constantly hearing how he will never be anything other than what his grandfather designed him to be: A monster to rule all monsters. A being of sheer destruction and unbridled gluttony and sin. Choas and evil and nothing more.

He sees the man captured and tortured by a sibling and treated as a sex toy until they were bored. He was captured and held in a type of stasis that halted his aging and kept in in a permeate rage for two decades to fight in the blood war as a distraction for Dagon's plans. Having been beaten, raped and abused, he doesn't see anything else but something broken. A weapon and tool almost at its breaking point and to be discarded after.

The boy whose own mother didn't love him enough to name him but only called him monster, until her abuse caused him to break and he killed her, eating parts of her. To be taken in by a tribe that used him a weapon, to carry them to victory while treating as an unfeeling thing. He has never been treated like he's a person. So why should it start now?

So when he hears compliments he can take them as jabs or lies to get something out of him, which is why it can be hard to get into a romance with him, because simply, it all looks like a lie to him. He knows what he sees in the mirror, and it's not what's being told to him.

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// So canonically, Ras is from a homebrew world we played D&D in when a friend was DMing and I got a break. His grandfather is a Demon Lord, who lands very much into the same portfolio as Dagon basically with some minor adjustments, namely he's vain as fuck.

So I just pictured Dagon sending this fine-looking avatar to camp being like, "Have you all seen my grandson? I can't sense him telepathically anymore or through psionics."

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// Seeing some mentioning kids and I just want to once again say Ras is the guy you don't leave unattended in the city. He will return with like ten kids and have this very intricate reason why they are all his now.

Which is, he was going to bring one back, but they had siblings, and you don't separate siblings! But they had friends, and he couldn't just take them from their friends! But the friends had siblings...you see where this is going.

And when it comes to kids man is a very protective momma bear, also a wet noddle. One pouty face and the man is taken out.

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I feel like for all the wild things Halsin has alluded to sleeping with, Ras has probably ate just as much. Ras has while in a demonic-induced age snacked on some shit.

And I can just see Halsin as they enter the Shadowlands like, "Please don't eat anything here."

And Ras just looked mildly offended like, "No shit! I'll have heartburn for gods damn months if I do."

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//This and this are really close to what Ras hears constantly in his head. It's a mix of Dagon and the Abyss itself whispering to him. And it does make it hard for him to concentrate, or often start speaking to himself trying to keep the voices at bay

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Raserei’s (human verses) strength

Raserei at max can technically pull (With some sort of a decent harness) can pull about 150,000 pounds a hundred feet before he has to stop.

His raw(nothing to make the lifting easier) dead lift is around the 870 pound marker. 

On his shoulders, he can carry about 1,200 pounds for a few steps.

I think this gives some ooc insight to just how strong Ras is as a person. Obviously, these are his max and that means he isn’t doing/holding this for any long periods of time, but it also shows where is mediums are when it comes to lifting, carrying and pulling various things. 

(All weights I’ve mentioned are weight people in our real world have achieved at one point or another, so are not just pulled out of my butt)

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So I've mentioned how Elastic Heart is really Ras' theme song.

But the song hadn't been released when I was making Ras for the only campaign I wasn't running. And a huge inspiration for him was Hellboy and Hercules, both the TV series and the actual epic, and some sprinkling of Beowulf in there for good measure.

And I'm telling you the song Go the Distance played on repeat when I was going over the Pathfinder books and writing up his backstory for this homebrewed world.

He was to be this beast of a man. Someone when you looked at them you knew mountains respected him, as he stood with them, and refused to break like them. No matter the storm he would weather it. But his eyes were sad, tired. A man haunted by things he had no control of. A monster by blood; by nature. And in his strength, he rails against nature time and time again. Refusing to break or bend to what he hears in his head. Knowing the world around him hates him. He's a danger that foolishly was allowed to live. But he doesn't care.

Like I told @infernaliscor Ras' blood, that pull of the Abyss, it wasn't winable. And Raserei knew that. All he was doing was holding out long enough that his body gives out, because then when he dies the part of his soul that was human is ripped from the part that is demonic and basically shattering both and he just fades to Oblivion. Can't be resurrected or reincarnated. Peace at last and he couldn't be used to bring about the apocalypse.

But with this time he had on his hands he was going to be the biggest damn hero. He was going to be everything everyone told him he couldn't. That by the time his number is going to be called, people would cheer his name, not revile from it. That the demon spawn from the Rikodav tribe earned his place among the heavens but chose true peace in the end. He would show not just he could do it, but show the strength of the North, and her people were worth saving.

Raserei never was good because it was easy, he was because of pure spite and because everything happening to him, the pure shit he had been through in his life, screamed at him to just give in, to make the world bow to him and suffer for the pain they had put upon him. Instead, he carried that pain, that trauma, and picked up all those he ran into. And it was his armor. He would be brave and kind when no one else would.

"A bear is a solitary creature, one of strength and endurance. But they are carved and revered for the home. You know why my son? Because none are as protective or dangerous as a mother bear. She will fight the beast gods and man to protect her young. You exemplify all these things. Do not forget that. To be a true warrior, you must have the stature of a giant and the heart of a bear." - Ras' adoptive mother before he set out on the trails to become a warrior (barbarian) for his tribe.

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// I think it's important to understand Ras' kindness, the softness and understanding he can show isn't natural. He wasn't taught it by someone, all of it he learned himself. He had to force himself to know what it meant to be soft, and caring.

Ras could have easily been cruel, selfish, and cold. And he was for a while. Because that is his nature, it has been what nature has nurtured within him. And yet, as also his nature he rebels against it.

It's why when Ras lets that mask slip, when he forgoes all the effect he put into himself, and just becomes his base it's terrifying. It's not seeing a side of him you didn't know existed, it's knowing this is who he truly is under it all.

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// One thing about Ras that doesn't really come up in threads is you can't emasculate this man. Just nothing you can throw at him will work. He will just blank stare and try to figure out what it was supposed to do.

Man's playlist for writing is a lot of rock and angsty/angry stuff. But catch this man singing "Shake it Off" while he bakes cupcakes with the pinkest apron with the frills

Call him a slur for a gay man he will laugh and admit he does like dick. Say he has small dick energy, sure dude, if it helps you feel better. He just doesn't argue. Trying to emasculate him is like a fly on an ox. They just don't really notice.

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// Casual reminder, because the screenshots will never show it. Ras is covered in thick black scales that resemble tree bark from larger fir trees. He has them all over his body where body hair would be, and all along his jawline. They are their thickest down his spine and chest. And they do fade the further up his arms you go and legs.

So technically he isn't too comfortable to cuddle up to and take in his scent being that for fresh blood and wet earth, he isn't surprised when people stand upwind of him.

Some inspiration for his scales were:

and

and here is that amazing art that was done of our boi

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// FYI in Ras' Forgotten Realm verses, modern fantasy, fallout, and weird west, he can smash a man's skull with his bare hands.

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Do they have a special romance scene at the tiefling/goblin party?

//So it would likely be at the tiefling party as with the goblins you need to pass some hefty checks to keep him in the party and if you pass his romance is closed off.

No, at least not in the context of like Astarion for example. But in his conversation during the party, Ras has the realization that you're not joking or mocking him. That you're actually trying to hit on him. Which would finally trigger the romance path. I don't see sex with him, or anything like that happening until late act two, early act three. Our boy is a slow burn. However, he would be the only companion who would have the option to have sex after the fact like how you can just kiss your LI in game, as Ras is a horny boi once in a relationship.