#gith baby xan

[linka-from-captain-planet]

the concept of Lae’zel and Wyll basically teen-parenting gith baby Xan is both the sweetest and funniest thing I can imagine

(That’s supposed to be a tiny warlock outfit Xan is wearing… Lae’zel made it so their son would have something that kinda makes him look like Wyll, since they share neither blood nor lineage)

[spicyraeman]

having gith kid thoughts

[smallcanofworms]

not to be throwing out hot takes, but hear me out. I love the idea of one of the tadpole’d party members taking and raising/keeping a watch out for the gith egg. however… Lae’zel as a mother kinda of rubs me the wrong way ONLY because it’s another “here’s a female character, they must be a mom” trope. I get it, motherhood (parenthood) is a big deal and is life changing - but Lae’zel specifically has been fighting her entire! life! And either 1) continues to do so, now with a hatchling under her wings or 2) finally gets a chance of reprieve from a lifetime of not knowing what freedom really is, only to be placed in a position of responsibility of a living creature that will need to be cared for 24/7. like I’m sure she’d give Xan her absolute all like she does every single thing, but let the woman have a break. same goes for Shadowheart (this is more of the Shadowzel adopts Xan thing) like, women can co-exist and live their lives together as a couple without a child. it’s very normal and very okay to do. give that baby to Halsin or Duke Wyll, even Prof. Gale ffs. they’d be great parents because they’re set up for that kind of storyline. let the ladies, Karlach included with her dismissal of wanting a child and suggesting a goat/sheep (?), be themselves instead.

Female character ≠ mother figure. And that’s okay.

[thedomesticanthropologist]

Hey there! I'm trying to think about how Tav and the party are taking care of the githyanki egg, pre and post hatching. What could they even feed a baby while camping on the road??

I have had this for so long! thank you for your patience. I had to research Gith eggs, only to find specific details about Githyanki eggs are not provided in official D&D lore.

So, Im gonna go off of a few things. It looks thick as hell, and requires some kind of special conditions to hatch? the best we can tell, they are incubated while sitting in acid. In game, the only way to get it to hatch without giving it up is to have it in Laezels inventory at the very end of the game. So Im assuming it sits in stasis and after all is said and done, she hatches it (outside the Astral Plane, as their eggs cannot hatch in the Astral)

In this ask, Id say it would require that the Gith at Rosymorn were right, and this egg only needed "a little more time", and perhaps it began the hatching process already in the acid when Laezel takes it.

A day after leaving the Monastary and getting to the Shadowlands, the egg hatches and Xan is born! Which horrifies EVERYONE in the party! No one expected this, it shouldn't have been possible considering the conditions. Everyone discusses trying to bring Xan back to the monastery, but at this point they cant really turn back and they already know that those Gith might not be friends.

Over two terrifying days, everyone experiences Parenthood. Newborn gith eat (????) but lets assume it can be provided.

Though Laezel has stated in game that she does not want to make children, she canonically rises to the occasion if Xan is with her after the game, so Im going to say she becomes immediately protective. This is her kin, her race, and no one is more qualified to understand what to do than her... except, a baby is MUCH different than your average Gith, and so she cant really do this alone.

Gale and Wyll would rise to the occasion in the caring-for-Laezel department. She can't sleep, but refuses to let anyone else hold the child for the first little while. So Gale brings her meals, and Wyll tries to take over her chores, which she rages against while claiming that she can do it all herself.

When she finally blacks out from trying to do everything alone, the companions pick up Xan and take turns rocking him and cleaning him and cuddling him- there is so much danger in the Shadowlands that none of them can outright refuse to help, because its all hands on deck for all tasks on rotation, and with Laezel finally sleeping, someone has to hold the baby.

Astarion holds "it" at an arms length and has a staring contest with him until someone takes pity and removes the child from his reluctant care.

Karlach gets so excited to help and is very entertaining, playing games and cooing and giggling with Xan- but she cant pick her up.

Shadowheart eventually finds a way to take over caring for Laezel, and when that happens,

Wyll is really the winner here. Hes got that baby strapped to him in an expert swaddle wrap. He figures out how to feed the kid while fighting off a stray shadow creature with his other hand. He kisses the baby on the head every 5 minutes.

Finally, when the Gith come in the night to warn everyone, maybe they have to take Xan with them, with the promise that Laezel may re-aquire him when all is safe (or as is the other option, he may go to live in the Astral Realm at a Gith monastery)

[the0verboss]

I can't believe the first piece of ficlet I'm gonna write for this is fricken Sad Gale Hours. I keep debating continuing this narrative from other companions view points

Gale POV angst/abandonment, Major character death(not Gale)

Gale/ Cleric Male!Gith Tav (it's Iss'tav'in let's be real but he's not named or described for the most part)

✨☀️💀🌙✨

His beloved leaves their home in Waterdeep so soon after they return from Wither’s party Gale can hardly mount a defense against it. He wonders if he should have expected this, if he’d missed signs of this on coming meteor amidst the revelry. When his mind cycles through the memory, it seems obvious. He and the others had sat around the table eating and feasting, Wyll and Astarion taking turns telling grand adventure stories while Shadowheart and Karlach heckled them. Gale’s darling husband had spent the night tucked away in a corner with Lae’zel after making the rounds. Gale hadn’t wanted to begrudge his githyanki love a chance to catch up with his kin, to hear how the war against Vlaakith was faring, to speak in his mother tongue with what might amount to his sister.

He is certainly begrudging him now.

They fight. Gale tries to argue from a logical stance at first. They have a life that requires they be present, responsibilities to the Academy and to the the Spires. His mother expects them both to be in attendance at her next soiree, newlyweds that they are. Gale’s continued research on the orb, dormant as it is, requires his attention. Surely they can take some time to prepare for a voyage of this magnitude.

He runs out of gentle patience quickly in light of his husband’s pre-arranged plans. The man has taken leave from the temple for now, and of course he doesn’t expect Gale to join him. Someone must stay and care for Xan.

It feels utterly patronizing and for the first time, since they shared a night in a conjured bed under false stars, Gale thinks back on his time with Mystra. The feeling is sickenly familiar. He thinks of his mother, her place in the Dekarios clan, noble as it is, but alone. He thinks how everyone always says he favors her, in looks and demeanor.

They do have a child he reminds his love, righteous and growing furious. Xan needs a good githyanki role model. He's still so young, and Gale has only a passable knowledge of tir’su.

And when even this pleading falls of deaf ears, then, there is anger.

He rages, throws things, yells, says things that he knows he'll regret later. While his husband continues to pack the last of his travel bag Gale can feel his composure unravel. It feels ugly. Worse than that even, he feels volatile,a yawning chasm where his breaking heart resides. Dark, desolate and afraid.

“Gale, I love you, but I'm going, my people need me. Lae'zel would not ask lightly.”

“You can't just abandon your family on a lark!”

But he does. The last Gale sees of him is a cape draped back, glowing Blood of Lathander in one hand, shimmering gold helmet tucked under the other. Then he's gone.

They don’t kiss good bye, though Gale imagines that would be difficult with the way he was snarling.

Gale stands in the open door of their, no, not theirs, not anymore. He stands in the door of his tower long after the love of his life has gone. Fists clenched, eyes wet, but silent save for the occasional sniffle. The sea is quiet, he can hear no gulls as the sun begins to dip beneath the waves.

He doesn’t hear the baby crying til Tara comes through her cat flap of displacement and bites him on the hand.

“Mister Dekarios, Gale, what's happened?”

“He left. He just….left us.”

“Well, I never…is he coming back?”

As Gale cradles the small githyanki baby in his arms, rocking and trying to soothe him, he chokes on the answer.

Yes. No. I don't know. He says he is.

The orb feels hungry again for the first time since they defeated the brain. But if his heart feels broken and consumed as he stands in his tower clutching the small body of his son then, it's nothing to what he feels months later.

It's nothing compared to the unexpected agony of seeing Lae’zel standing, blood drenched and solemn, on his balcony. She’s alone, a shroud wrapped bundle under one arm, glowing with divine light. Under the other a familiar shimmering gold helmet.

[mooreaux]

ok so like is Xan tiefling × vampire ???? i need details pls ♡

Xan hatched from the githyanki egg winter rose picked up at the creche! I headcanon the egg randomly hatched around the start of act 3 and Rose felt this instant connection. Everyone in camp helped take care of the baby gith, but Rose was the one who really formed a bond and ended up adopting him officially after the game ends. Lae'zel chose the name tho, as Rose definitely wanted him to have a githyanki name.

And in her world state Astarion ascended and their relationship crashed and burned sooo... Single mama 😢

[klkirbles]

thinking abt... sword of the coast wyll broken from his pact, and a lae'zel who decides to stay on faerun and adventure with him so she can see even more of that plane. also they take baby xan with them who hatches while they're on the road.

i think it'd be cute for them to constantly be on the move, fighting generic baddies and also any gith vlaakith sends for them...

...all the while they're co-parenting LMAO

and eventually they finally act on the budding feelings between them <333

[lanaevyssmoved]

Xan? She named the egg baby Xan? Xan as in the depressed frail elf companion from Baldur's Gate 1? lmao Love it.

she says in her goes to the astral plane ending that she named him xan cuz it translates to freedom in gith

[xanfeursel]

I always forget that damn gith baby is called xan!!!!! Fuck!!!!!

[amorficzna]

Eyes without a face, of course 👀

yaay I'm very excited to speak on this one! Thanks @yourworsttotebag for asking about it too 👀

This is what I'm hoping to expand into my baby fic about Xan, our favorite gith egg. The name comes from Billy Idol's Eyes Without a Face, of course, legendary song right there, and the reason I chose it is because I want to play around with Xan's upbringing and his perspective of his mother Lae'zel, and what he ends up seeing and learning of her while travelling through Toril (and meeting his other mother, Minthara, absolutely influenced by your fics and your exploration of their relationship), and how those two things conflict.

How he ends up not really knowing what to make of his mother - this distant figure he's only seen sometimes as he is away with the mages and she fights her holy war versus this woman that each of her friends have different experiences with and perspectives of, as well as their own stories that they share with him.

It'll be a bit of a slice of life fic, I think, with Xan visiting each of the main companions and possibly others (I'm still trying to figure out the exact details, as well as who I could see partnered together) but it'll probably go all the way from Waterdeep, to Reithwin, and then finish in Baldur's Gate. I want to lean into more obscure pairings, like Wyll x Rion, and maybe Astarion x Rolan, because it would be so fun to develop those dynamics I think, and how these other characters tie into his history in their own ways.

And like there will def be babies abound from other characters.

Anyway that's a bit of what I'm planning! I think I want to open it along the lines of:

The mages whisper among themselves and so it must be something important, or urgent. His mother told them last time, during one of her rare visits to see him, that her son was a child of the Comet, and to speak in his presence was to respect him. They had kept their word to speak to him as an equal, as a brother, until now. "Xan," the eldest finally calls to him, and he abandons the slate he is copying to approach the dais the wizened gith stands upon. Vrekoth appraises him carefully, "Your mother approaches." "So soon?" "Yes. You best prepare your belongings, but pack lightly." He blinks, "I'm leaving? With her?" His heart beats a rapid, excited tattoo against his chest. For there is no higher honour than to fight alongside his mother in the holy war that has taken her from him for years. "Do not drift off into your fantasies. You are not joining the war."

[lewis-winters]

Day 15: Reality

Part of my OC-tober 2022 (that will get fucking finished in 2024 so help me god)! Yes! Another Baldur’s Gate fic ft. my Tav, Pasiphaë Elago on the HBO War Blog! I have too many feelings about this stupid game, the characters in it, and the little guy I made to go with them! Implied Bloodweave and Shadowheart/Nocturne. Because I care Them.

tw: Astarion’s whole backstory; some symptoms of derealization disorder—Pasiphaë has experience with this derealization and conducts some grounding techniques that are specific to Astarion’s preferences, to help him come back to himself; it sounds bleak, but it’s a really gentle sort of fic; mentions of Gale and Shadowheart’s own PTSD, though only fleeting

Pasiphaë comes home to a tressym in her foyer and a vampire on her couch.

“One of those times, yes?” Pasiphaë asks of Miss Tara, who only mrrps in affirmative. She gives the doting feline a scritch behind her ears in lieu of thanks. “Will you tell Gale that I have him, then? I’m sure he’ll worry.”

Tara meows in begrudging acquiescence, slightly annoyed at being told what to do with only an implication of a please in the request. Still, she shakes her wings and stretches very big, before trotting out the door, bushy tail held high.

“You’re both so lucky to have Miss Tara looking out for you,” Pasiphaë says, amused. “Looking out for all of us, I mean. I have a feeling she thinks we’re all her kittens, now, though Gale remains to be her favorite. Yesterday, I caught her grooming Shadowheart’s fringe while she slept just on the spot across from you. It was very cute.”

No reply—that’s alright. She’d begun talking less for the conversation, really, and more for just the noise. Astarion knows this. He’s become rather familiar with the tactics that she’d found useful back in her youth, when reality slipped her grasp as often as it does for him, now. Noise is a good start, and narration is even better. A good reminder of where they are and what the day had looked like.

“The garden is coming in nicely. Shadowheart has a bit of a green thumb, who knew?” she continues, puttering about her home, shedding this and that as she prepares for a nice night in. Silently, two crimson eyes stare out at her from the shadows beneath the cozy, weighted blanket Pasiphaë had been contemplating laundering, but never came around to it. It’s a particularly sought after item by all the guests of her home, after all. Just the other week, Gale was under there, too, deliriously exhausted by his magic returning after so long without. Yesterday, Shadowheart and Nocturne had shared it for an afternoon nap. Last month, when Lae’zel had jez'rathki’d with Xan in tow, the little gith baby had found the wool to be fascinatingly soft, babbling and drooling as his chubby hands kneaded at its folds. Hells, she’s pretty sure Jaheira had used it, too, when she had taken a detour into Waterdeep during one of her Harper missions, to see how they were holding up.

It must smell of everyone, now.

He may never admit it, but Pasiphaë knows Astarion finds that particularly comforting.

“We have too many zucchinis, of course. It’s a devil plant, that one,” she says, finally shedding her boots. “Too much yield. I’m going to have to give away a few baskets full—would Morena like them, do you think? Oh, what am I saying? of course she will; I’ll make sure she gets the nicest ones. I’m going to make some cheesy zucchini bread with the first harvest, though. Gale said he’ll interplanar deliver it to Karlach and Wyll tomorrow, alongside other supplies. Do you want to help me make it?”

No reply, again. But there is a shuffle, like someone preparing to stand.

Pasiphaë doesn’t bother to see if her follows her to the kitchen. He will. The kitchen is always a reliable delight for all the senses, and being in there, working with your hands, is a sure-fire way to, at the very least, focus on the present. It’s another technique of hers that Astarion’s found effective, perhaps because it reminds him of watching Gale cook. The Dekarios Tower kitchen has become a sort of sanctum for them all, after a few weary breakfasts were had around its round table, post rather eventful nights out, all in the name of sating a bored vampire’s curiosity. It became habit, then; if they’re in the mood to disturb their wizard, it was his kitchen they’d hung around. Scratch has a permanent dog flap in there, too, despite Gale’s protests. He’s a scrap stealing pup, but their wizard has always had a soft heart.

Pasiphaë’s own kitchen might not be as big or as lively, but it was just as well-loved. She hosts them one by one in it, sometimes, when they’re all feeling like shit. Which is often, though she doesn’t mind as much as she pretends to. It’s all like clockwork, see? She’s been adventuring enough to know that saving the world is only half the battle; it’s what happens after that the real struggle begins.

For Gale, it was the difficulty of coming back to a home so unchanged when you’ve been so irrevocably altered.

For Shadowheart and Astarion, it was the making of a home after escaping an entire existence of previous torment.

For Pasiphaë, it was the quaintness, the domesticity after constant doom. Always looking over her shoulder, wondering if it will fall apart any time soon with the next crisis.

Often times, peace feels like a dream.

It’s no surprise to her that Astarion feels like he is constantly trapped in one.

But it’s no alarming matter. Pasiphaë knows this, too. He may be falling back on old habits, retreating back into that space in his head he’d lived in for all those years of torment, but the world about him has changed drastically. He’s not there, any more. He needn’t fear starvation or abuse any longer. There are blankets, now, that smell of his most trusted people. And kitchens, filled with friends who will stay up all night just to keep him company. He'll come back to them on his own time, at his own pace. And they will be waiting.

Pasiphaë puts Astarion on washing duty. The cold water of the tap and the rough soil he must scrub away from the harvest are good sensations to ground him even further. Some of it splashes unto the blanket he’d dutifully dragged in here with him, but Pasiphaë doesn’t call him out on it. Instead, she lets her mouth run, allowing her stream of consciousness to fill the air between them.

It goes on for a while—Pasiphaë knows, when given the chance, she’s just as bad as Gale—but she does run out of things to say, once the dough is resting on the counter. They’re sitting at her table, now, a breakfast nook by an open bay window, when Astarion blinks. And blinks again. Hard, like he’s trying to see how many colors he can summon behind his eyelids.

“Tell me something real,” he requests of her, then. Quiet.

You are safe, Pasiphaë wants to say. You are loved.

She doesn’t.

Instead, she settles on something concrete and simple. “It’s going to rain soon. Do you smell the ozone in the air? The way the earth seems to call to the sky?”

Without meeting her eyes, Astarion answers; “Yes. I smelled it on the way here.”

“I love that smell. I love the rain. It makes music with water. You’ll hear it soon.” Gently, she reaches out and touches the back of his hand. An invitation. “I’m happy to spend this rainy night with you.”

Carefully, slowly, Astarion turns his hand over until he is holding hers as tightly as he can.

Me, too, goes unsaid, as they wait for the rain to come.

--

I’ve come to realize that I do have to do a descriptive piece for Pasiphaë, now, since I have no idea how to use the photo mods to show her to you guys. So... I’m putting that in the to write list. I have made a mood board for her, though! I’ll post it with the piece.

[spicyraeman]

I am OBSESSED with your gith content oh my GOD,, like, I was already romancing Lae'zel and now?? I'm just??? Akgkskckzkcnsbd you're doing the lord's job here istg, and LITTLE BABY BOY XAN MY SON MY JOY MY LITTLE HATCHLING IM?? Ngl you honestly inspired me to do my own fanart, so like, thanks a lot for your work, truly. I haven't drawn since 2016 and now I'm picking it up again and rediscovering an old passion. The Lae'zel obsession is doing me wonders. So yeah, if you ever wonder just how great your art is, know that somewhere there's someone learning to draw again thanks to you. Thank you.

-Ren🪷✨

HELL YEAH!! Always amazing to hear someone gettin back into drawing!

My bg3 and lae'zel obsession were actually the thing that seriously got me back into drawing too! I legit can't remember a time when I drew this much and genuinely enjoyed it the whole way through

Wishing you the best of luck on your on ur art journey 🤗

[linka-from-captain-planet]

NOT Aunt Florrick's (Aunt Desire's?) special friend, I canNOT 💀

you should also know that in my personal canon, the Official Ships include Lae'zel/Wyll, so the child asking Auntie Desiré why the surly drow lady calls her babygirl is in fact Gith Egg Baby Xan