#Alu-Fiend

[toaarcan]

Mercy (Alu-Fiend, Oath of ConquesttheAncients Paladin) mets @paladin-official's Nurghal (Half-Orc, Oath of Devotion Paladin).

[sky-kiss]

raphael × aasimar!tav is good and the dynamic is yummy but may i propose:::

raphael × alu-fiend!tav.

ever since i read on the difference between cambions and alu-fiends it was rotting away at my brain. i imagine they both would be wary of each other in an odd way, almost the way step siblings sometimes just Don't Click together despite them being stupidly similar. Raphael calling Tav needy (alu-fiends have like an odd craving for companionship?) and Tav in their turn calling Raphael a stubborn ass(cambions n their ambitions but also ultimate loneliness)

and then they just end up bonding in a silly way........... hkcchkkchhcocohf raphael talking about his dad and alu-fiend!tav talking about their mom like "yeah i feel you"

Bro, I truly wish. I loved alu-fiends. But alas. 5E retconned them out. Alu-fiends are now the same as cambions. :/

We cannot have nice things.

Writing some stuff with his half-sister, Antilia, right now. They have a very similar dynamic. Ant is happy to stick with the status quo and chase their dad's affection, while Raph goes rogue. They have a begrudging respect and understanding of one another.

But lord. I miss alu-fiends.

[y-rhywbeth2]

I think Raphael might be closer to a half-deity than a regular cambion.

Half-fiends are... used to be? Native outsiders. Who knows what the various lore on cambions is because we also used to have alu fiends and other details, I'm just referring to the half-fiend template right now-

Anyway, native outsiders are those with mortal parents, and as such have mortal souls and bodies while also having the supernatural thing of their non-mortal parent. Like their tiefling descendants, half-fiends leave corpses and can be resurrected as usual, and they're not innately tied to an outer plane and won't reform.

And this clicked while I started poking at the Bhaalspawn again, and it all links into Mephistopheles being his dad. The Bhaalspawn are confusing, because they should theoretically be native outsiders due to having mortal parents and being born on the Prime Material plane. But they die like non-native outsiders, and then I remembered that another difference between native and non-native outsiders is that the native outsiders need to sleep and eat. Bhaalspawn were given the outsider typing in 3.5e, which also has this to say on half-deities;

"Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category [of quasi-deity/divine rank 0]. [...] All deities (even those of rank 0) are naturally immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Deities do not age, and they do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe."

Meanwhile:

"Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Native outsiders breathe, eat, and sleep."

So if your outsider parentage comes from a deity it overrides the mortal heritage and you don't count as native to the Prime, I guess.

Bringing this back to Raphael; Demon Lords and Archdevils tend to start blurring the line between what's not a god and what is. Gargauth, for example, is counted amongst the Faerûnian pantheon despite the fact that he's technically a very powerful devil who got powerful enough to count. Orcus, a god of undeath, is technically a Demon Lord. Lolth was considered a Demon Lord at one point, before returning to deity status. The Archdevils can provide spells to clerics and manifest aspects much like deities manifest avatars. Asmodeus recently elbowed his way into divine status by ripping out a bit of Azuth.

So I guess Raphael is a demigod or close enough, which I'm sure does wonders for his psyche.

I don't think I actually have a point on this post, it's just something that I thought of while poking the Bhaalspawn with a sharp stick for the millionth time. At least it explains why he dies like a full Baatezu in the House of Hope.

[oldschoolfrp]

Four typical D&D tieflings from their earliest sources in AD&D 2e, all by Tony DiTerlizzi--

Top is the tiefling Factol Rhys of the Transcendent Order, from A Player’s Guide to the Planes in the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set (1994).  The very first description of a tiefling I can find is from this book:

Part human and part something else, tieflings are the orphans of the planes.  They can be described as humans who’ve been plane-touched.  A shadow of knife-edge in their face, a little too much fire in their eyes, a scent of ash in their presence -- all these things and more describe a tiefling.

And that’s it for their physical appearance.  DiTerlizzi’s illustration goes farther in establishing goat legs and hooves, very long ears, and a tail as options.  They are noted as taking half damage from cold-based attacks, with a +2 bonus to saves vs fire, electricity, and poison.

Middle is a much more human-looking tiefling, from the Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix (1994) which notes they are:

as varied as the places they call home.  Superficially human, their appearance always betrays them: some sport small horns, other have pointed ears, scales, a cloven hoof, or just a wicked gleam in their eye that never leaves. . .  They’re often confused with alu-fiends, erinyes, incubi, and succubi (which they’ll forgive). . .”

Their diet is distinctly non-human -- They prefer to eat only meat, preferably raw, especially blubber, gristle, and insects, but can survive a short time on “ashes, coal, and other mineral matter.”  Their favorite beverages are “strange concoctions of broth, oil, sulphur, and firewater.”

Bottom are two tieflings accompanying the new d100 random Tiefling Tables from The Planewalker’s Handbook by Monte Cook (1996).  Player character tieflings roll 1d4 times on the Tiefling Appearance table, which gives only 7% chance per roll of horns in some configuration, 2% pointed ears, 6% various combinations of goatlike legs/hooves, and 7% some type of tail.  Inhuman skin color finally shows up as an explicitly stated option, with a 1% chance for green-tinted, 1% blue-tinted, 1% red-tinted, and 2% striped markings, as well as 5% total green, blue, or multicolored hair and 19% additional results of hairy, hairless, scaly, leathery, or feathers.  Also 3% would have red eyes, 2% black with no whites, 1% feline eyes, and 2% “extremely deep-set eyes.”  Damage resistances and innate magical abilities also were highly variable and randomized in this supplement.

Today the 5e Players Handbook (2014) has standardized some of these traits like always having large horns though of varying shapes, thick tails 4-5′ long, and solid color eyes, while emphasizing certain variability -- eyes may be solid black, red, white, or silver, and hair could be dark black, brown, red, blue, or purple.  Normal human skin coloration remains the first option mentioned, though "various shades of red” are a possibility.  Of course, as always, players and DMs can choose to reskin their tieflings however they wish at their tables, and wildly colored tieflings have become popular.

[adarlingmess]

D&D lore about half-fiends are so confusing damn

So apparently a male devil can mate with a mortal woman and produce a cambion, a succubus can mate with a mortal man and create alu-fiends, but female devils are barren, save for erinyes

Except, in Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, it says unique female devils aren't barren and can produce offspring

Fuck it, at this point I'll write whatever I want

[bitezilla]

BALDUR'S GATE 3 ― LILYSHA, ROGUE ALU-FIEND.

[archcambion]

Cambions have a weird history in DnD.

In 1e and 2e, cambions were the names of offspring between demons and mortal women. This lead to unfortunate implications... Or intended complications. Regardless, this didn't mean there weren't half devils, or that female demons couldn't have held mortal kids, half devils were just rare compared to half demons and the setting didn't bother to name them.

This was likely due to demons being impulsive with both binary genres being fertile. Demons may not plan on having offspring and descents but would jump at the opportunity to use them for their whims.

In contrast in 1e and 2e lore, only male devils were fertile and devils were meticulous planners and had full intention of using their children.

Of course the term for cambion is a umbrella term in in 1e and 2e.

We have baron cambions, who were offspring of demon lords and mortals. There were also true cambions, and those were offspring of a tiefling woman and a demon. Cambions, apparently, killed their mother at birth. Unless if you were a female offspring of a succubus. Then you were an Alu-Fiend and a woman.

This was the explanation why cambions were often evil, humans rejected them and demons thought they were losers. However, the lore never explains if the cambion child is dependent of a caregiver or more like demons in being born independent. I'm not a fan of any species killing their mother at birth due to the fact that this is usually written by people who don't realize unless the baby has a wet nurse before formula, the baby dies within days.

But for all my complaining, 2e cambions were not always evil. There was a 10% chance they'd be not-evil. I liked that.

In 3e, the writers decided was too damn confusing and everyone with a fiend father and mortal mother were half-fiends and generally regarded as cambions... unless if you were an alu-fiend. The only mention of demonic cambions was in an adventure module towards the end of 3e that was all about Grazzt being annoyed Lloth wouldn't be a booty call.

4e said fuck that, cambions were only offspring of devils as apart of Hasbro's idea to get rid of all the previous lore outside of the Forgotten Realms. Unlike demon based cambions, devil based cambions were adored and spoiled by their infernal parents. 4e was so hated that Hasbro moved onto 5e when there wasn't a lot of sufficient lore on why devils pampered their children beyond having more worshipers for Asmodeus... or anything else besides the bare bones, really.

In 5e Hasbro retconned the old lore back, though they did change the cambions to fit the 'let's make lore more simple'. As of this edition, any offspring between a fiend and a mortal was a cambion. Didn't matter. All were cambions. It didn't matter how much the mortal parent (male or female) attempted to help their fiendish child, that child was evil. So, the good news was that cambions no longer killed their mothers at birth. The bad news is that cambions according to RAW can no longer be not-evil.

Of course, this is all based on RAW sources and very brief and glib. Homebrew and headcanon is basically the true rule of DnD, but it's fun to know how things have developed since Gary Ggynax got super bored with his friends one day.

[thot-writes]

i said i was in bg3 hell babes and i meant it! here’s another drawing of my tav, chickie vierro. her default armour, camp clothes, and underwear (+ a little astarion for scale 🤭) backstory under the cut 💕

Chickie Vierro is a 49-year-old tiefling bard born from a wood elf mother and an alu-fiend father. Her father hid his infernal heritage from her mother and then fled when Chickie was born. Adalia, her mother, brought her back to her ex-husband and best friend Raul to raise her together with her older half-siblings.

The Vierros are a low-born family who didn’t take much issue with being poor, but Chickie developed an obsession with wealth at a young age. She rarely succeeded in her thieving attempts though, and got in trouble often.

Over the years, Chickie has had many jobs. Her current job is as an exotic dancer in a brothel called the Honey Pit. Her mistress, Madame Clover, pockets most of the profit and leaves her with little at the end of the night, leaving Chickie to thieve to try and make money.

Two years prior to the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, Chickie’s small gang of amateur wanna-be criminals got into a turf battle with three siblings calling themselves the Moonstalkers. After the Moonstalkers threatened them, the gang got violent and fought back— it was only then they found out that the Moonstalkers were werewolves. Chickie, along with her best friend Rina, got bitten.

Weeks prior to the events of BG3, Chickie broke into the Counting House and cleared out a personal safe. However, she accidentally dropped her necklace in the process and quickly got tracked down and sentenced to eight months in prison. After a fortnight, she escaped. It was then that she was captured by mind flayers.

[maegalkarven]

June was locked in a vault for a century?? 👀 now you got to give some June lore pls!

Aww yis!

Don't mind if I do!

Technically June is not exactly a cambion, but more of an alu-fiend, because his mother was a deviless and his father - a god. But everyone mentioning that will get murdered, so don't. He can be called cambion, so let's stick to that.

June was born sometime before the 1358 DR, being one of the last bhaalspawn of to be conceived by his father before the Time of Troubles. His mother was a lesser deviless and younger daughter of Mephistopheles Gabriel, who conspired with (in some version tricked by) Bhaal to create a perfect child (a mix-breed of a god and a devil).

It awfully backfired on her when June was born the same way gnolles are born: by tearing though his mother's flesh on his way out. He then ate her entire body.

That event immediately brought Mephistopheles' attention, who came to collect his unexpected grandson. Mephisto was aware of the Bhaal's blood within the child and the dangers it possessed, and so the child was put into a vault to be raised in confinement.

Thus June missed out almost everything; his father's death, the bhaalspawn crisis, etc, etc. He mostly grew up alone, with several servants attending him and rare visits of his grandfather. As he grew up, he was allowed out on some occasions, especially after it was revealed he possessed the keen natural talent in magic. For a while Mephistopheles even trained June himself, before he got bored and moved to another one of his projects.

Bhaal tried to claim him countless amount of times through the years, making June have murder fits and being locked back into the vault and closely monitored.

Due to the fact of living most of his time in a magically sealed vault, he aged slower than as if he lived outside, so by the 1460s DR he looked like a teen while being over a century old.

Somewhere around 1460s June attended the party thrown by Raphael in the House of Hope (he had to beg, bargain and manipulate his way into being allowed to attend it) where he met young Enver Gortash.

Soon after that, somewhere in 1470s DR June had one of his recurring attempts of breaking free from the vault. This time the attempt was successful and landed him somewhere close to Elturel. The key aspect of that attempt being successful was Sceleritas managing to reach him in Hell and helping him escape. June then proceeded to cut his wings off and perform a ritual trying to send his possible pursuers the wrong way. The remaining of the wings were later sold to Helsik.

By the end of 1470s June and Sceleritas reached Baldur's Gate and entered the Temple of Bhaal, thus beginning the reign of the new Chosen.

June agreed to steal a Crown of Karsus mostly out of spite and to prove to himself he isn't afraid to go back to Cania (he was VERY afraid to go back to Cania)

When he entered the HOH to steal the orphic hammer, Mephisto was immediately informed of that and came in uninvited. He allowed June to finish playing around, ordering him to 'fix his messes' and bring the Crown of Karsus and himself back to Mephistar. If he disobeyed, he would be brought back by force.

He is brought back by force after the final battle because he, a fool he is and a prideful one, decided to defy his father and thus was stripped of any essence but the diabolical one, making himself an easy target for his grandfather.

At the end of the game he is dragged back to his vault and in a dire need of a rescue party because he will not sit still for another century as the time passes by, no, thank you.

June's timeline is the only one where Raphael survives because the entire HOH questline just turns into family members pointing fingers at each other. Also because neither June nor Raphael are happy to see Mephisto just appearing out of the thin air in the hall of HOH.

Random facts:

June is one of the very few fiends understanding the majority of Mephistopheles' works and projects. He is one of the most magically-talented descendants the archduke has. It pisses Raphael off immensely.

Pre-amnesia June considered Gortash to be the only mortal worthy of his attention. Post-amnesia June is a little less a prick about that, but still has an undertone of superiority about him.

June is very conscious about his relationship with Mephisto and his place in the hierarchy in Hells (which is inexistent tbh). As a child he craved his grandfather's attention and approval more than anything. He never truly grew out of that.

June acts overly cynical over his mother's death, but secretly feels guilty over killing and eating her. He will never admit that.

As a teen he saw the Blood War from above of Raphael's house and desperately wanted to join the fight. He secretly sympathized with the demons and not the devils.

June is chaotic neutral. He fits very badly into Hells because of that.

Before the events of BG3 the closest to a friend June had was Sceleritas. Yes, tragic, I know. The closest to an equal he had was Gortash (obv)

June treated The Cult of Bhaal like a hobby, which pissed Orin off SO MUCH. He never took her seriously and it bit him in the ass later.

June is a weird mix of a wild/storm sorcerer. He is booksmart, but not streetsmart.

June has all of his memories returned as a punishment from Mephisto. He doesn't like it one bit.

[abyssalaerlocke]

WIP Game

I'm really new on here, don't know a lot of people or who'd have WIPs, but @traggalicious tagged me, so I'll share my list.

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it. Tag as many people as you have WIPs.

A lot of these are just porn, and there's a ton of potentially triggering and squicking stuff 🤐

Baldur's Gate 3:

Double Durgetash

Aquatic

Chiaroscuro Gort/Durge/Karlach

Tressym

Exchange

Tiefling Gale Durgetash Sandwich

Chiaroscuro bg3

Patron God of Vampires

Nameless Incubus

Warlord Astarion Prince Gale

Touching Without Touching

Gale Astarion Halsin 3

Dark and Urge

Squidling

Presentation

Succubus

Gale/Astarion/Halsin re-do

Post-canon Adventure Montage

Dhampir alu-fiend

Take it Slow

Hot, Cold, and Wild

Blue Goat

bg3 sci-fi

Sacrifice for the Sun God

Cyberpunk 2077:

Saber

Joytoy Johnny

Avatar (Cameron):

Snatching

Syncing Tides

Dark Side of the Sun

An Adventurer's Erotic Tour of Pandora

Am Nesia

Skyrim:

A Daedric Game of Increasing Absurdity

Forget Your Burdens

Zelda (Tears of the Kingdom):

TotK Chiaroscuro

The Dragon Prince:

Dragon Prince Prison

Lucifer:

Lucifer: King of the Centaurs

Crossovers:

CP BG

Crossover Party

LBFD/Avatar

Prince of Anarchy

TLOI

Depth of the Iceberg

[toaarcan]

These two will have quite a journey.

[eclipsecrowned]

anyway thinkin about the galdur bait muses and family and what i sprinkle in as lore

aurelia has a mom and was something of a post-parting surprise after an adventuring party romance concluded. has never met her dad. unknown if she will ever meet her dad. but she does potentially fall in with her dad's people at the end of the game. has a ton of fully elven half-siblings who are far older than her. is indisputably a mama's girl.

gale is stated outright in discord lore to be the result of a divorce. he asserts he turned out fine besides. it's unclear where his dad is or how involved he was in gale's youth, but he grew up in his mom's household and surrounded by her family. only child (derogatory.)

haer'dalis is the son of an elf and a fiend woman, making him actually more alu-fiend or cambion than properly tiefling. that doesn't tend to fly outside of the planes he's used to, however, so he keeps his mouth shut about his origins. has a kid knocking about as of 3.

hel is a child of ye olde divorce. mom got custody of her brothers, her dad got custody of her in the split. was partially raised by her father's blood-brother, to horrific results. seeking to reclaim her goliath roots post-game and rebuild the bridge between her identities. still paying for her human grandmother's fiend pact with tiamat physically.

ismail is happily adopted by his foster father, g*rion. does not fuck with his true father bh**l, but is tight with his half-siblings im0en and s4revok -- before the latter backslid. in turn was a hesitant but ultimately fantastic dad to valas after his own adventures wrapped. some say even after death he is still taking psychic damage over the fact his birth mother was with both bh**l and g*rion, and he's not sure which was the side chick to her.

miruna is... complicated. born of a profane rite involving mass sacrifice, she is bh**l's essence given flesh. she is some denomination of related to other bh**lspawn, but exactly defining her relation to valas or s4revok is difficult. she is also, unfortunately for us all, mother of a son.

sybelle is an orphan. bounced between temple urchin to archival apprentice by the age of 8. was a cool big sister to younger apprentices, but otherwise kind of adrift, especially being of shou descent in overwhelmingly southern athkatla. will found family the party. looking forward to starting a family of her own someday with whoever romances her.

thaniel is the son of s*lvanus (i love that fan theory i am working it into my lore so hard) and a nymph. ol*ver is his kind of sort of brother kind of sort of shadow self. h*lsin is kind of sort of his best friend kind of sort of his guardian kind of sort of his pet bear.

valas is the son of aforementioned ismail and the to be mentioned viconia. only child, lost both of his parents young by the measure of his lifespan, but tries to honor their memories. has various aunts and uncles in his parents former traveling companions, regards boo as like a brother to him without a trace of irony or jest. in constant conflict with his bh**lspawn relatives. refuses to continue bh**l's tainted bloodline, but does adopt miruna's son post-game.

viconia is one of 15 daughters born to her matron mother, and had at least one brother. was thrown into the lolth cult young and was nearly murdered by her own mother for earning the spider-queen's ire. killed several of her sisters in turn. seems to have leveled out or at least learned to imitate healthy familial bonds by the time her son valas was born. delighted in ax plotting to find out her latest paramour has a daughter, no matter how isobel refuses to have contact with her father. call her mother.

vellioth is the sole survivor of the sundering of his hometown -- but was on his own long before. occasionally finds true companions in his mortal travels as a mercenary, but no true family. donella certainly isn't it. she once muses that c*zador is like the son the two of them never had and vellioth counters 'it's not too late to abort' so... he's not buying into her 'one of the family' platitudes or her delusions of what their relationship is.

[gortashs-skidmark]

Our Beloved Tiefling Headcanons and Canon facts

(UNFINSIHED)

!! Rolan and Dammon headcanons. Canon History about Asmodeus Tieflings, Tiefling abilities, Arcana and Blacksmiths. Rolan and Dammon are both Asmodeus, which will be the only Tiefling bloodline we take a look into. More bloodlines linked in the Info Source: dnd5e.wikidot below !!

CONTENT WARNING:

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Info Source: World Anvil, Officialbeastiary Wiki, DND BEYOND, dnd5e.wikidot, Forgotten Realms Wiki, World Anvil, 5th Edition SRD Utilizes 5e, 1e, 3e, and 4e

What is Arcana instinct in Tieflings? Asmodeus Traits and History.

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Differences in Devils, Cambions, and Demons and what to know about them.

𝕯 Cambion's are direct descents of evil beings, such as Raphael who's father is Mephostipheles. True Cambion's are half-fiends, who's one humanoid planetouched, and one who's Tana'ri. Succubus do not count as Tana'ri or Demon Lords, they cannot have a Cambion persay, though still half-fiend. The mortal mothers always die in childbirth. The most common terms for Cambion, is breeding between a mortal female and a Devil. Terms of what a Cambion are have changed over the years because of the spellplague, but this is the simplest breakdown. Their extremely bitter beings, for their societal rejection and potential orphanage or demon abuse. Their mothers die, abandoning them and leaving them in the Material Plane (orphanage) or The Abyss (demon abuse). They often seek out each other for companionship, or humanoids to create Tiefling offspring.

𝕯 Tiefling's blood is only slightly tainted with an evil being's blood and can be an array of alignments, but often end up in the "ghetto" of town as thieves and crimelords.. Mistrusted and feared on the streets of the Material Plane for their tainted lineage. Asmodeus being the most common bloodline. Tieflings are from human blood, they're basically humans with horns and tails, and darkvision. Different bloodlines will get slightly different looks and abilities.

𝕯 Demons are chaotic fiends who only seek to destroy, originating from the Abyss. "They were personifications of ferocity, vile perversion, and elemental devastation" without compassion or empathy, these are vicious creatures that only exist to sow strife and disorder through evil. Demons intend to cause the most pain in any situation, simple killing is too boring for them. Their wickedness knows no bounds.

𝕯 Devils are highly vindictive Lawful (Evil) beings who seek to control. Devils seek vengeance more than anyone for their misery, seemingly for no reason other than conscious relief. Devils will have vengeance even if in the long run it demoted them. they're lazy and lay their work onto others. They are always looking forward towards the rise to promotion, and changing the rules in their favor. They act on emotion if it's strong enough, ignoring their seek to avenge or potentially ruining their goals, even leading towards their death.

𝕯 Succubus/Incubus and a male mortal can have Alu-fiend offspring. Female offspring were seductive in their manners, had sharp teeth and a set of wings, and had high sexual proclivity. Males struggled were seen as only half-fiends with similar traits, which destroyed any sense of gender hierarchy. Alu-fiends are incapable of long-time shapeshifting. Naturally deceptive, dexterous, and charismatic, a race of "social butterflies" not only in sexual encounters. They crave interaction, don't kill their prey, and don't go after their prey's spouses, their cravings for any social activity makes them incredibly gullible. They can have a charming aura without people noticing their presence.

𝕯 The difference in an Incubus and a Succubus is the sex of the victims. Often Succubi are feminine forms seeking male victims. Incubi are often masculine forms, seeking female victims. Their abilities are the same. What is something that fucks both? I don't fucking know. A Bincsubus. That's made up. That's not real.

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Tinkerers or Tin-Smith? 𝕯 A Tinkerer is a possibly class, is a master crafter, repairer, manipulator, and creator in the engineering world, ancient and new techniques.

𝕯 "Many tinkerers explore how magic and engineering mix, developing complex powers of item imbuement and mastering crafting- and mechanics-related spells. Others eschew magic as a cheap trick that ignores the brilliance of pure engineering and crafting, or focus on constructs and clockwork or alchemical weaponry, or train to get more out of their tools and magical devices, or kitbash and juryrig what they need when they need it. " - 5th Edition SRD

𝕯 A tin-smith, can also be referred to as a "White-Smith" which an umbrella term, means they specialize in light metals like tin or pewter. It can fall under Adamantine or Mithral, which falls under the specific term "Bright-Smith"

𝕯 Adamantine can only be found in hot magma-producing areas. It's brittle which makes it delicate to work with, it's high in cost and requires a strict process with high temperatures.

𝕯 Adamantine can be used in weapons, armor, spell-casting, and constructs.

𝕯 Tin-Smith's can work with tin, silver, bronze, and pewter alloys. It requires a low-melting point, and can easily be manipulated.

𝕯 I ask this question, just to make you think about Dammon, this could leave to any kind of headcanon you want about him.

What happened to Elturians during the Descent? I'm way too tired to go over the history of Elturel again.

"Kreeg coaxed Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard of Baldur's Gate to come to Elturel to resolve several disputes that had troubled the two cities for some time. After greeting the Baldurian delegation, Kreeg escaped Elturel in secret, shortly before the Companion changed into a black orb that tore the whole of Elturel and its populace from the Material Plane and spirited it away to Avernus, first of the Nine Hells, with only a crater left behind"

"Over the next few days, hundreds of refugees, both citizens who'd escaped Elturel or been outside at the time, and folk from wider Elturgard, made their way to neighboring Baldur's Gate, with some blaming Elturel's rival for the city's loss. However, they were barred from the city and the resident Flaming Fist began arresting Hellriders on sight, fearing they would cause trouble, but this only led to fighting."

 "Torn from the land, the city was fractured in twain along the ravine that ran through the city. The black Companion still hung malevolently over the city, raining down lightning that raised ghouls, ghasts, and zombies. While devils besieged the city, demons attacked them in another battle of the Blood War, and the surviving Elturians fought off both or simply hid in the ruins. Many people died in the devastation, to the demons and devils, or to thirst and starvation. With the city's leaders lost, none other than Grand Duke Ravengard rallied the defense. The High Hall was the center of the defense effort, and also the focus of the devil assault."

Sorcerous Sundries and Razamith's Tower

Small Note: "Elturian wizards, meanwhile, were safer in the saddle, being skilled at attacking from their mounts. They were much more capable of avoiding or resisting attacks while mounted than they on foot, being less able to react fast enough"

[decodamalion]

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION: Side Characters

Mister Michael Burns

Age: 76

Gender: Cis Man

Species: Aslantian

Sexuality: Straight

About: Old Mariner/ Explorer and researcher

Barbara Burns

Age: 72

Gender: Cis Woman

Species: Karmarean

Sexuality: Straight

About: Retired war-time nurse.

Mistyal Burns

Age: 30

Gender: Cis Woman

Species: Alu-Fiend

Sexuality: Pansexual

About: General of The Destroyer's Reconnaissance Order

Arthur Martin

Age: 23

Gender: Cis Man

Species: Ileth

Sexuality: Gay

About: Explorer and researcher of Gaian Magic

Baron Malion

Age: 14

Gender: masc nonbinary

Species: Malion

Sexuality: Gay

About: Temporary Ruler

Maraline Malion

Age: 60

Gender: Cis Woman

Species: Aslantian

Sexuality: Straight

About: Abusive bitch

Elizabeth Malion

Age: 54

Gender: Cis Woman

Species: Aslantian

Sexuality: Straight

About: Retired Priestess

Danté Malion

Age: 56

Gender: Cis Man

Species: Malion

Sexuality: Straight

About: Disgraced brother of The Destroyer

Diamond Blockit

Age: 24

Gender: trans fem

Species: Human...?

Sexuality: Lesbian

About: Increadibly intelligent otherworldly engineer

Samuélle Malion

Age: 17

Gender: Cis Man

Species: Malion

Sexuality: Straight

About: son of The Destroyer

[magpiejay1234]

Since I’m at Crystal Tower, or rather Syrcus Tower, I’ll continue on the analysis with guest party members, with the recent reveals first:

*Doga and Unei have to ritualistically die to energize their respective keys. Doga’s Key unlocks Eureka, Unei’s Key unlocks later floors of Crystal Tower.

*Each party member supposedly represent a different “light”:

**Luneth is Light of courage

**Arc is Light of kindness

**Refia is Light of affection (very girly)

**Ingus is Light of determination (insert Undertale/Deltarune memes here)

I’m not sure if this is a thing in the original game, but this may be inspired by FF5′s characterization of each crystal’s affinity, which I discussed in the FF5 GBA commentary (tagged ty plays ff5 gba)

*Crystal Tower is not actually made of crystals, but rather solid light. It too is created by crystals power. I suppose this building exists because of the “Tyranny of light” era.

*The true Earth Fiend of the game is Titan, everybody’s favourite Summon, except he is a recolor of the previous boss Hecantoncheir (who will later become an Eidolon in FF13 ironically). Before Titan, I have encountered both Summon bosses (Bahamut and Leviathan, since I did Odin much before), and Shinobi in Falgabard.

*Ancients’ Maze has the Unei’s Clone enemy and Crystal Tower has Doga’s Clone. Obviously these are reused sprites (or models in this version), but it makes you wonder if these are Xande’s creations, or clones created by Ancient technology which seen running amok in Ancients’ Maze.

Their true forms’ design seems to inspired Amano’s later designs io Edge’s parents in FF4.

Either way, all the previous bosses except maybe Leviathan and Odin are shown to have recolors by this time (Dragon enemy from Temple of Time is a recolor of Bahamut). Encountering Aeon (Gutsco’s recolor) took me some time.

*Falgabard’s Dark Knights and Shinobi boss reference Ninjas which exist in this game in the late game, but were the original Dark Magic users back in FF1. It is a clever reference, though FF lore about Dark Knights is different from medieval stories about Black Knights (some of which, you know, were actually Black, as in African). But I like the “dark is not evil, negative emotions can be used for good” angle they are going for.

*******

So the guests:

*Princess Sara isn’t particularly useful, but she is a good introduction to the game. She only appears in one dungeon, The Sealed Cave, and most of her optional dialogue is about quicksaves, but she is fine enough. She apparently has more story in the Mognet sidequests, but I haven’t done them yet.

*Cid is surprisingly very useful, being the sole physical only support you get. He was very good at early game grinding, but his sole dungeon, Mythril Mines, is technically optional, so you might never use him in battle.

Much like Sara I didn’t do his Mognet quest yet, so we’ll see how things go about with him, but he obviously has more screentime as a NPC than as a guest party member.

*Desch is the most characterized guest member, and he is the one that sticks around the most. Most of his optional dialogue is about Mini and Toad mechanics, except with Salina, but he gets lots of screentime so it is not a big deal.

Apparently his death is a fakeout like FF4 party members (well, most of them, RIP Tellah), but I’m not at the end of the game yet.

*Aria Benett has powerful support magic, but she, like Sara’s Cures, rarely uses them. Since she dies pretty soon after her introduction, we can’t say much about her. She apparently has a more prominent role in Brave Exvius for some reason, I guess to rile up the waifu crowd.

*Prince Alus (Restor) is technically supposed to be party member of the Dragon Spire, but I defeated Garuda without going there with him so I didn’t see his in-game prowess. Apparently he casts Confuse and Aero.

He has more role in the Mognet quests apparently, but again, I haven’t done them yet, so...

*Doga is a decent party member, but he is more important because his optional dialogue reveals much lore of the game. His characterization is very good I think, and fits in nicely with Xande and Unei. You definitely feel they are a found family of sorts, much like your party members’ families.

*Unei is also decent, but since she is more talkative, she reveals much more about the world’s mechanics. Apparently dream world items work like antimatter against real objects, for example. Her parrot is supposed to be exposition before you wake her up, but I didn’t go to her Shrine before Noah’s Lute, so the parrot segment didn’t surprise me as much (not to mention you encounter her in the dream world with her parrot beforehand).

While Doga and Unei are both party members for a short dungeon (for Doga) and a rather long one (for Unei) they serve much more than exposition and guides, you truly feel they are perceived as mentors by the Warriors (Orphans?) of Light.

Among the cast, I would say Desch takes the cake, with Unei and Doga being distant second and thirds respectively, Sara being the middle, and Aria being the bottom, for obvious reasons.

I wonder if the intended guest party member for Castle Hein was here, would we get a guest party member for each major mandatory dungeon. Like, what would be the guest member for Goldor Manor? Or Cave of Shadows? Or the Gutsco mini arc?

Questions, speculations. Early FF games used to allow this sort of stuff, even in their remakes. Oh how mighty have fallen.

Next post will be on game mechanics as promised. But that’s for another day now.

Edit: Note: Apparently Alus and Cid are the only FF3 guest party members who don’t appear in Brave Exvius. Rest do.

[sunbreaxer]

Dungeons & Dragons character : Lux