#art of asheera

[optiwashere]

It was not quite a circle, but a cog [...] Shadowheart gripped Asheera's wrist to steady herself. The cog's heat flashed on her cheek, glowing subtly with a faint red light. "A paladin without her oaths is nothing," said Asheera. "Without you, I am less than nothing. A cog without its matching pair."

I commissioned this from the lovely @raynhoro! It's my sweet Tav — Asheera (she/her) — making an oath to protect Shadowheart after the events of the House of Grief from one of my fanfics. She's been drawn so well, and her calm focus here matches exactly what I had in mind when I wrote Bend to Break to Mend last year.

Their faces, the touch...

Thank you so much for turning my terrible MS Paint mockup into this amazing piece 💜

[kirafier]

Sweater meme C1 for @creativefandomminds

I`m a lil dumb and accidentally deleted the original reply post from the ask box…Yep gotta be careful with that.

Sorry Alice TwT.

Btw, Ashee likes this kind of clothing that can keep her warm UwU

[sunlit-moth]

she...

[flame-shadow]

Just the beating of hearts like two drums in the grey I don’t know what we’re doing, I don’t know what we’ve done But the fire is coming, so I think we should run I think we should run, run, run, run 

“Run” - Daughter

[optiwashere]

I'm going fucking feral right now. Fandom gifting is beautiful.

Art credit: @number1aylinfan

I've been chatting with her since I posted the fic inspired by her spicy Aylin/Shadowheart/Isobel fanart, and she offered to draw Asheera, my primary OC from almost all of my other fics! I've had this character for 15 years, and this is the first time I've written anything for her that isn't just character notes for D&D games. Seeing my trans queen in art for the first time (I am a terrible artist) is sending me to the moon.

This is the current WIP. Once Kinktober is over I'm pinning this everywhere I can. Behind my eyelids. On my walls. On your blog.

Her Aylin/Shadowheart/Isobel art (NSFT)

The fic I wrote inspired by it

[optiwashere]

my gift to U ❤️ byebye

Omg...

This is so gorgeous!!! I love how you drew her! Thank you so much for this wonderful gift 💜

The slope of her muscles, the hard-set and tired eyes, her cheeks... it's all so lovely! Her nose, I cry. This was incredibly sweet of you to draw and to send to me, I love your rendition of my bbygrl so much... thanks again!

[optiwashere]

So I've been meaning to post this ever since I was sent it, but I also wanted to make sure it was OK with the artist to post it.

Once again, the lovely @cfcreative gifted us something magical. Thank you so much for making this 💜

For fans of the Nightsongs AU, you might recognize this scene from Chapter four...

The first one is the crop that feels best to me, but if you insist on seeing the Denny's sign then that's the second version. Also, a full crop on Shadowheart to see the little details she added!

[optiwashere]

I offer you some Asheera/Shadowheart fanart doodles, been meaning to do a doodle of them for a while because I enjoy your writing and finally got around to it! Enjoy <3

Oh my god, this is so adorable!!!💜

The lil blushes, the hearts. It's so sweet! This is so lovely of you to send, and it's ridiculously charming.

Thank you for drawing the blorbos, and thank you so much for sending this to me! I love them... and of course thank you for the lovely comment about the writing :)

[optiwashere]

I borrowed someone for rough art practice.

Tried to keep the details from that other fan art you’ve posted. Thanks for the stories!

This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with me! I love how you drew Asheera. I'm fucking. So! It's her! This is making me weak.

You're the best 💜 I was at the end of my tabletop session for the night, and while my players were doing some bookkeeping I happened to see this on my phone. They had to ask if I was OK because I was just staring at this for so long.

What a gift 💜 Thank you again for sharing this (and reading the fics too of course!)

[optiwashere]

This wonderful art of Asheera's father, Diar, is by the lovely @cfcreative!

I was so gobsmacked when I was messaged this art, and I'm still kinda floored by it. It's perfect tbh. It fits him in his retirement when he's perpetually exhausted but always ready to smile and offer his home to his little one's love, as seen in the fic where y'all first met him.

Thank you so much for making this! It is so extremely flattering that you drew my sweet lil blorbo's dad! 💜 It means more to me than you could really know regardless of how much I've fawned over this art in DMs lmao

[optiwashere]

any art of your tav to share? i'd love to know what asheera looks like!

I have a bunch of screenshots and art linked in the Light Casts a Shadow series description!

Two very lovely folks made some art of her here and here. Artists linked in those posts.

[optiwashere]

This seemed fun, so why not do this for my babies? Portraits taken from art in this post.

Some elaborations under the cut...

Stats

Ages are at the end of BG3. Shadowheart is at least late 40s in canon, but I always had her as 50 in my mind. She has her birthday in my fic canon during the post-Absolute Crisis rebuilding while Asheera's won't be for another few months.

Asheera is ~201cm tall, Shadowheart is ~170cm tall. Roughly 31cm height difference!

Ship Parameters

Shadowheart and Asheera both enjoy being the big spoon and little spoon, but Shadowheart prefers being nestled in Asheera's embrace. Doesn't mean for a bit that the roles aren't reversed now and again, though.

Shadowheart wears Asheera's clothes all the time. Constantly. They are, of course, comically oversized on her.

They both use pet names for one another, but Asheera fancies herself a bit of a romantic so she likes to come up with melodramatic ones ("my Heart") while Shadowheart prefers "love" and "my love." Shadowheart also calls Asheera "my Lady paladin" a lot in the fics, but IDK if you consider that a pet name or not?

Shadowheart is undoubtedly far, far, far more introverted than Asheera. In fact, Asheera is pretty extroverted in general. The extrovert/introvert ship dynamic is my catnip, how could you tell?

So, the affection one I took to mean what they prefer. Shadowheart likes quality time and affirmations while Asheera likes acts of service and quality time. However, if you imagined it as what they do then their placements would be flipped.

Shadowheart confesses love first. Affection and attraction, that's technically Asheera.

Neither of them really panic about bugs. Asheera has a bad habit of killing the little creatures though, and she has serious thoughts about her own oaths when she does it.

Horse riding... Listen, all I'm saying is Asheera riding a horse with Shadowheart behind her? Yeah. But, like, if we're literally talking about driving a car then Shadowheart can drive but if anyone else offers to drive then she's going to take the opportunity to sit in the passenger seat, curate the music, and fall asleep.

Shadowheart knows how to cook because she's an adult, but she's just terrible at it. I'm sorry, she is a horrible cook to me. Her taste buds are all fucked up from decades of sampling/testing poisons, venoms, and paralytics as a Sharran. Asheera's not much better, she just knows that if Shadowheart cooks it'll be a disaster for everyone.

Shadowheart prefers discretion and Asheera loves giving her wife big, showy kisses for all to see. They have an understanding.

Despite the jealousy levels, Asheera is prone to overprotectiveness. After everything that Shadowheart went through in her life, after everything that Asheera saw in her memories and in the events of BG3, there's no way she doesn't immediately come to Shadowheart's defense at pretty much any perceived slight. Shadowheart finds it very sweet, but unnecessary. She can defend herself just fine. Doesn't mean she hates it though.

Shadowheart has the age on Asheera by a margin, and she spent decades in a Sharran cloister. Calling them "relationships" is probably a bit much to be fair, though. This doesn't mean Asheera is some naïve virgin! She's actually more experienced with long-term relationships than Shadowheart.

Levels

They're both extremely horny, especially for one another, but Shadowheart wins out on this one by sheer excitement to try out anything and everything that she thinks Asheera would want to try. Asheera isn't a prude by any stretch of the imagination.

Shadowheart is awkward in that "sheltered in a cult commune" kinda way. She says the wildest shit sometimes and expects people to just move on from it. Someone who quotes erotica with their friend in public is going to cause others to feel awkward. Asheera on the other hand? She makes things awkward by either being way too serious about a situation or cracking bad jokes about it; there is no in-between, and nobody is sure what to expect.

Asheera doesn't get jealous. Shadowheart is jealous of things that aren't really related to their relationship. I don't think either of them gets jealous over that sorta thing. Shadowheart just has to manage her feelings about family given that Asheera has one that loves her and she was able to experience a childhood and such. That triggers jealousy which Asheera finds normal and reasonable and completely understandable. It's one of those aspects of Shadowheart's specific trauma that isn't really something you "get over" and Asheera, while finding it hurtful and hard to deal with sometimes, relies on her training and oaths as a paladin to manage that specific hurdle in their relationship.

[optiwashere]

Anotheropti's Femslash February 2024

OK, so I have something of a problem and apparently the only cure is writing for these monthlong fic challenges. This time it won't be every day, but it is a a fair bit of femslash. We as a fandom deserve far more F/F works, and I'm nothing if not dedicated to the task.

Most of the prompts are taken from the list by @doomedgirls in this post.

The prompt for the 14th is part of BG3 Valentine's Day! That one was taken from this list posted by @baldursgays3.

The prompts, ratings, and ships for each fic I'll be doing are under the break. I'll be posting on my AO3 as usual and I'll update this with links as I post the fics. All fics are for Baldur's Gate 3.

Asheera is my primary Tav. I write just an awful lot about my favorite trans fem half-orc paladin, and she's naturally taking up half the prompts. If you're interested, you can see some (spoilerish) screenshots of her here! And some art of her...

Here, here, and here! 💜

February 1: Morning after (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated M)

February 4: Lipstick (Nocturne/Shadowheart - Rated T)

February 7: Letters (Aylin/Isobel - Rated T)

February 9: So close (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated E)

February 10: Reckless (Shadowheart/Karlach - Rated M)

February 12: Meeting the family (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated G)

February 14: Collars + Restraints (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated E)

February 16: Rain (Allandra Grey/OC - Rated E)

February 18: Transformation (Araj/OC - Rated E)

February 19: Quid pro quo (Nine-Fingers/Amira - Rated E)

February 22: Hands (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated E)

February 25: Everything (Shadowheart/Asheera - Rated E)

February 28: Freedom (Minthara/Lae'zel - Rated M)

[optiwashere]

since other artists have drawn Her Knight Most Dykely, i threw in my lot with my many many years of fine art (20 minutes). i'm a professional and didnt even need to put my glasses back on. ur welc

Beautiful work. Excellently done.

Also, to answer the question in your wonderful piece, Asheera doesn't have a surname.

Well, that's not technically true. She doesn't have a surname in the way that someone like Gale has a surname (I want to say Dekarios would be an ornamental surname but I'm no expert) or someone named Smith has an occupational surname. She has a matronymic surname in the style of her mother's heritage — Asheera, daughter of Teshka. Similar to how something like "-dóttir" or "bint" are/were used in real world names.

P.S. I'm not super familiar with nasab other than from some old university history courses still echoing faintly in the ole brain box, so if I'm using "bint" incorrectly there then I'd love to be corrected on its usage.

[optiwashere]

Anotheropti's Quick and Dirty Smutmas Schedule

This post exists so that I can link to it in this month's fics. I'll update this with links as each fic is posted.

Brief summaries/kinks written for the fics and posting days under the break. It's all Baldur's Gate 3 F/F all the way. Mostly trans femslash because we are who we are in this household.

If you're looking for F/F fics with Shadowheart, I'm basically always writing more of them on AO3!

For those that need context, Asheera is my trans fem half-orc paladin Tav that I write for just constantly. Constantly. It's a sickness, really. Here's some more art and screenshots for the curious that stumbled upon this!

December 8th — Post-epilogue romantic fluffy smut (Shadowheart/Asheera)

December 10th — Spanking (Z'rell/OC)

December 12th — Chapter 5 of my modern/band AU!

December 14th — Roleplay (Shadowheart/Asheera)

December 16th — Rope bondage (Minthara/Shadowheart)

December 18th — Breathplay (Shadowheart/Asheera)

December 20th — Worship Kink (Shadowheart/Nocturne)

December 21st — t4t Shadowheart/Karlach

December 22nd — Wintertime Smut (Shadowheart/Asheera)

Now that they're all listed out like that, I wonder if it's clear whether or not I have a favorite character?

[optiwashere]

Heya! Hope you're doing well.

You can call me opti, and I write a lot of fanfiction. You can find almost everything I write on my AO3 profile, anotheropti. It's all Baldur's Gate 3 right now, and nearly all of it is femslash. Most with a focus on trans women. I want to see more people like me in fic! 💜

I primarily write Shadowheart/OC works with my Tav, Asheera.

I do write other ships, but I have a clear bias for my beloved trans fem half-orc paladin.

Where to start?

Light Casts a Shadow is the "core" series for my Shadowheart/Asheera fics. I've got way more than these for my babies, but those are where I suggest you begin!

Nightsongs is my nearly finished modern/band AU where Shadowheart is in a metal band with a humanized Shar. Features a modern version of Asheera.

Blades in the Night is another longfic I'm working on, though it's updating even slower than Nightsongs. It covers the immediate aftermath of BG3 as Shadowheart and Asheera deal with a group of Sharran assassins and eventually find their happily ever after.

Scenes from a Memory is a one-shot collection AU following a loose in-game timeline with a focus on Shadowheart as a trans woman. Features a different OC than Asheera. I don't update it super frequently or on any schedule!

My series page collects a wide variety of different fics from events like Kinktober and Femslash February as well as ficlet collections and ship-centric series!

Tags on tumblr I use for fic-related things:

anotheropti prompt fics which I use for Tumblr ask games! I'll gradually put these fics in this series on AO3.

oc: asheera for all sorts of asks folks send me about Asheera! Learn more about her if you like her :)

nightsongs au for stuff about my modern/band AU.

art of asheera where I post/reblog others' beautiful renditions of Asheera 💜