#Grodderick

[meanbossart]

I'VE BEEN SITTING ON THIS JOKE FOR LIKE 3 MONTHS

(convo from UNHhhh Ep. 119)

[meanbossart]

wanted to experiment with some different lines/coloring plus got something cute out of the real

[meanbossart]

i take my characters and stories very seriously

[meanbossart]

Anyways, enjoy this Grodderick I made real quick for the bhole chart

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merry jesus day i got you elf kissing

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more playing around with new brushes, i call this one "guy who keeps pretending he isnt hogging your blunt"

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I have been thinking about Grodderick so much lately. he's so wonderful. thank you for making him.

Girl... Me too

[meanbossart]

there SHE is

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cannot put this shit on Tumblr but you may find it in full in my twitter (meanbossart) if you'd like an eyeful of nuts

[meanbossart]

Sorry but as long as I'm here can I just say.... Yes DU drow is great and all, but Grodderick like... Seeps sex appeal. Confident, insighful man with cool tattoos and banging tits who's been to jail at least one? Put this half orc on the cover of times magazine with his shirt off. This story should have been about Grodderick this whole time.

[meanbossart]

sooooo Grodderick showed up in the fic now, and there is some art of him and Izzantar together based on the tags you use so... are they going to... you know....

I GUESS YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO........ STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT

But if you must know SLIGHT SPOILERS some Plot happens that relates to a kinship they may or may not develop in the future. Also just look at them, they're adorable, how could i not draw it

[meanbossart]

i’m so intrigued by grodderick, do you have any information on him you’d like to share?

Ohhh I'm so glad to hear that because I fucking love Grodderick LOL here's some character fun-facts!

He's about 6'8" or 6'9", making him the only character that's taller than DU drow so far in A Novel Experience (if you don't count Do'zynge because he's cheating)

He's in his early thirties.

He stopped drinking about 4 years ago and now only enjoys a little devilweed here and there, maybe a cigar whenever Nathanya gifts him a box.

Speaking of which, he has a bit of an infatuation with Nathanya but has basically zero hopes of it ever going anywhere.

He's a follower of Ilmater, though believes in a quiet form of worship and so doesn't really mix in with the church.

He tries very hard to divorce himself from half-orc culture.

He's fluent in Elvish and tries to maintain the accent in common for reasons that relate to the fact above.

Because of his history, he's a pretty non-judgemental guy and lets people make their intentions known before making assumptions based on race, that said, that doesn't mean he won't poke a little harmless fun at you or exercise basic common sense, for that matter.

Similarly, he has a high tolerance for people giving him crap based on his own race and history, as long as they don't mind having it flung back at them. In fact, he generally prefers the company of people who speak their mind bluntly.

The tattoo across his throat spells out SLAUGH, which means ‘mud wallowing dogs" and his basically an orc slur (got that in jail LOL). The one on his stomach says "TALIBUND'. He also has the Ilmater symbol on the side of his neck.

Aaaaand backstory dump below because I felt like it:

Grod (as his buddies call him) was raised by a human mother who lived as a recluse, being that she was largely ostracized for getting together and having a kid with a half-orc, who eventually left her to raise Grodderick on her own. This instilled a lot of guilt in Grod as he grew up and he took off of his own at around age 14, basically going no-contact with his mother for several years before they reconnected and began sending letters back and forth. At that point in his life, Grodderick made a pretty seedy living within the underground-market and as very effective debt collector.

His mother made a point to raise him to be pretty well educated, so he stood out as having a good mind for business and strategy among his peers ( and especially among other humanoid races who often expected less of his intellect) and made a relatively comfortable living. He sent a lot of the money he made back to his mother, and the rest of it he spent on passing pleasures like drink and gambling. He was good friends with a few other half-orc and had a couple of short-lived relationships, which usually ended with the other person being frustrated with his choice in career and leaving, since he had no desire to be romantically involved with anyone in his circles and his partners were often kept in the dark about what he got up to.

After several years of this, his mother at some point stops answering his letters, and upon returning home to find out why, he learns she has passed away and left him basically all of the cash he ever sent so he had something to fall onto of when he inevitably decided to pursue a different kind of life. Grodderick took this money, severed most of his past ties and spend a little while traveling until he ends up in Pran, where Nathanya hires him as muscle, and eventually begins to rely on Grod for all sorts of work after having taken a liking to him.

[meanbossart]

I came here for Drow but I've fallen for Grod. So few people play half-orcs, much less make them so incredibly sexy. Thank you. I really want to learn more about his story. I'm new to the blog so I might have missed it, but where's he come from, what does he want, what makes him tick?

(also got this ask so putting them together)

First of all: I'm absolutely delighted that multiple people are this taken by Grodderick. AS THEY SHOULD BE.

Grodderick is a character I made for the BG3 fic I'm writing called A Novel Experience, it's over 100k words long and an exercise I gave myself to improve my writing and tackle my minor but Very Irritating adult dyslexia lol (which means, if you read it, expect it to have kind of a clumsy beginning - but I'm confident in saying that my writing got a whooole lot better thanks to it, and I'm very proud of a lot of the chapters I've put out in the last couple of months)

He plays a minor part, mostly as a voice of reason and a "flipside parallel" to some cast, if that makes sense. He's mentioned super early on but only makes an appearance with spoken dialogue way later.

The story can be found here! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50551582/chapters/127702666

And I did a whole writeup on his backstory (since none of it is really relevant to the plot, so it's not a spoiler) here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740147028518223872/im-so-intrigued-by-grodderick-do-you-have-any

Ps: I know im super behind on asks, i've just been very busy! I'll make another compilation of them soon

[meanbossart]

I love Izzy so much, I feel for him tremendously.

Can you tell us something about his future relationship, whatever it might be, with Grodderick? Or is it under wraps for spoilers? 👀

Sure! The details of their relationship are never relevant to the plot, it's more of a background thing that changes some very minor character interactions in ways I doubt one can predict by simply learning about it - I'll still leave it under a cut for anyone who wants to avoid it. I'll also skip certain story beats which allow their relationship to happen in the first place that are most definitely spoilers, and only talk about the actual dynamic between them and post-ANE events, so if details feel amiss, that's because they are.

So it's probably obvious that they're meant to develop a romantic relationship lol this happens after Grodderick gets somewhat "stuck" with Izzy around through certain circumstances. Izzantar, in his predicament, happens to be far more comfortable around him than anyone else because of his predisposition to feel safe around "slave" races. Now, that's obviously not a great start to any relationship, romantic or otherwise lol but it is what it is.

They grow a little closer through Grodderick's endless patience and sincere curiosity about a culture he isn't familiar with. Izzantar, despite his experiences, considers the underdark his home, he can only properly conceptualize of surface customs by comparing them to his own culture, and Grodderick is the only one willing to hear it without judgement - with the eventual wisecrack or pushback. But the way he does it is one Izzantar comfortable with.

Likewise Izzantar would probably defy Grod's own generalized negativity around the orc-ish side of his culture (and frankly be positively shocked it has any merit at all). It's a funny little game of "no, YOU have internalized hate" they keep playing between themselves by accident.

Another major point here is that Grodderick is a) the only person who sees Izzantar as an adult and b) someone who immediately recognizes him as someone with an anxiety disorder. With time he would help Izzy to calm the fuck down and not always assume the worse out of people. His company also allows Izzantar to feel more at ease in public settings in the surface as a drow, and Izzy's brazen company and completely unfiltered perspective is a breath of fresh air to Grodderick. He thinks he's funny, he recognizes and participates in his dry humor, he doesn't offend easy, and he's the furthest thing from a drow. This makes him an apt friend choice and later a romantic interest. Being hot and having cool tats helps LOL

Also they both like to partake in a little devil🌿 which is likely how their first meaningful interaction ever happens (Izzantar sees him smoking and is like "oh boy I could really fucking use some of that right now")

They probably starting fucking kind of casually. It's entirely on Izzantar to pursue him since Grodderick isn't interested in feeding a drow's ego, which is a funny interaction of its own where Izzantar just blows up frustrated that he won't make the first move, since he's used to being a very passive partner. Something along the lines of "WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO FUCK ME" probably comes out his mouth verbatim LOL they get over this non-misunderstanding quickly and Izzantar is just happy to have sex in a way that's completely the opposite of what's expected of him in the Underdark as a popular breeder. Obviously he also finds Grodderick profoundly attractive both for his confidence, smarts, appearance, and frankly his imposing presence because he's not immune to a little bad-boy charm.

I think they catch feelings around the same time as one another, and proceed to get on a long-term relationship.

Izzantar (this is post ANE and never mentioned) eventually sets shop somewhere as a jeweler. He gets a lot of business based on the fact that he's a drow and knowingly plays up the part of someone who's mystically more knowledgeable and skilled about precious stones and minerals than most because of his race (on top of his genuine talent). His bad attitude is also hysterically seen as charming drow bedside-manner and indicative of the quality of his work to wealthy clients.

He lets his hair grow out and for semi-plot-related-reasons starts passing as a female drow (also, he just likes it) Grodderick doesn't care either way. At that point they're living together and get a cat that Izzantar names Angkacha. To his despair, Grodderick nickanames it Chacha and it sticks. Izzy wants the cat to be a vicious killing machine but whenever he casts animal speak on it the cat's just like OOOO MAMA ME LOVE MAMA and he hates it (but not really, he would kill for this cat)

aaaand here's some old doodles of him from that point of his life! The last two have been uh cropped for uh reasons

[meanbossart]

what do you imagine the ANE characters’ voices sound like?

HMMM lets see

Nathanya: She has a deep mastery of her voice and can drop and raise her register at the drop of a hat to match whatever facet of herself she's displaying, but most of the time she speaks very high. Think Mia Goth!

Grodderick: Fairly low, raspy voice though usually spoken with a very easy-going and friendly cadence so it's just kind of warm and inviting rather than off-putting - though he can certainly make it off-putting when he has to. A more chill Ralph ineson.

Izzantar: Thomas Brodie-Sangster. No notes LOL

[meanbossart]

I really hope Izzantar comes back in the future of the fanfic, I love that failman so much. Are we allowed to know who the orc(?) you draw him with is?

I'm so happy you like him! I never expected it, but i've grown very much attached to his character and i can't wait to write more of him hint hint nudge nudge

The half-orc i draw with him is Grodderick, who showed up officially in the latest chapter (He had been mentioned before but not significantly nor by name) they become buddies in the future and then some, though i'll say that never becomes a focus of the story except for having some very minor plot effects. I'd call this a spoiler but i've drawn and tagged both their names in the art so whatever LOL