#i don't have a name for my character yet but i think they're elf cleric possibly

[lokislytherin]

lookism dnd au?

if you see this and wanna art PLEASE i’m thinking of doing this for nanowrimo and actually making it novel-length and it would be cool to have concept art! of course with credit where credit is due i always give credit

[catnatch]

okay so with all this au talk, the DnD college au is actually occupying most of my brain space. here's how it starts (LOTS more info under the cut):

Yosuke is a college first year and has had terrible luck doing the whole fresh start, make lots of friends (and get tons of babes) so far.... so while he doesn't like his suitemate Kubo too much, when Kubo wheedles him to join him for some dorm board game thing (so he doesn't look like too much like a creep going alone; and "it's not like YOU've got any plans on a Friday night, Hanamura") to get close to Yuki-chan- "and there are other hotties there!!" Yosuke doesn't protest TOO much. plus there's free food!

board game thing was actually a DnD session a couple of other first years are trying to put together. also in attendance are: Souji (the dm), Yukiko and Chie (they're already friends but don't know the rest of the group), Kanji, Naoto (Rise is there briefly (she's Naoto's girlfriend); she won't be joining but she wanted to steal Souji's cooking and catch up a little as she, Naoto and Souji are already friends- Naoto is the one to help convince Souji to put together this DnD recruitment, actually. Rise's very busy but she'll appear on occasion throughout the campaign when Souji begs her to play a dramatic bit parts for NPCs) and Ai just cos I feel like other people than the IT should join for a lil bit (she will make an excuse 20 minutes in "ohhhh something came up I'll be right back." she doesn't.) Mitsuo will not be returning after the first session after Yukiko flatly turns him down. Teddie is back home with Yosuke's parents since he's not college age yet and won't be a part of this at all, probably

first session is a little messy (the enthusiasm levels vary wildly among the players) but what hooks Yosuke and gets him to come back again is one of his off the wall ideas in combat actually worked and won them the battle and the dopamine he got from that is unmatched

what's the campaign look like: UHHHHHH i don't know but I have the vague idea it would somewhat mirror the events of p4- so instead of some world ending adventuring maybe the gang uncovers a serial murder plot? but more fantasy. and maybe the murderer's story is somehow tied to the NPC that Yosuke eventually falls in love with idk

the gang's characters!

Naoto already had their character planned out beforehand: an elf ranger ♂ (Souji had to talk them down from going into some super specific off-book combo to not scare off the newbies that hopefully would join). Yukiko, Chie, and Kanji had all actually read the recruitment flyer for this event so had a vague idea of their characters but haven't played a ttrpg before so just went with what appealed to them rather then how they play. Yukiko: tiefling warlock (and after she learned Naoto is x-gender she thought that sounded fun and made her character x-gender as well; Naoto thinks maybe they're being mocked but it's genuine on Yukiko's part). Chie: human monk ♀. Kanji: halfling cleric ♀. Yosuke had no idea what he was getting into so he's just going for what's Coolest. he considered being a super yolked warrior but nah... not even in make believe. But he could be an awesome stealthy ninja!! So he chooses rogue. as for race, he's not going to be an elf that's basically like being a fairy, right, and he's not... but he thinks they get cool bonus powers or something so he'll go with half-elf.

(Ai tried to be an elf princess but Souji gently maneuvered her to elf druid. Kubo went with the first things that caught his eye: dragonborn barbarian)

as for names, only Naoto came up with one already (Erawin <deeply into western high fantasy>); the rest of the gang workshops names at the table:

Yosuke: Jira (i'm not creative what do u want from me .)

Chie<sweating, desperately trying not to say her literal first thought > : her name is……uhhh… <gives up> Lee…

Yukiko just tries vague grunts to turn into a name (“Grgk!” “no” “Aaaht!” “no” “ERP!” “sounds like a belch” <yukiko laugh > “is that a name?? er- no” “Hrk!” “OKAY YES HRK YOU CAN BE HRK”)

Kanji: Usagi (it is for the reason you're thinking)

anyway the main meat of the au is an NPC appearing and then reoccurring throughout the campaign that Yosuke's character forms a natural rapport with... Souji picks up on this and fleshes out the NPC beyond what was a throw away background character. the gang try to do their DnD sessions every week for at least a couple hours, but it still takes them weeks and weeks to get through what Souji planned. since it's so gradual, Yosuke doesn't notice when their characters' banter turned from playful to outright flirtatious...

and he swears he's not like THAT but he can't help getting so genuinely upset when he dies* in Jira's arms and Yosuke can't separate character from person when he hears Souji's voice tells him before he dies that he- he loves--

*temporarily; I'm not a monster

[vaingloury]

Disparate Thoughts on Dungeon Meshi

I'm an anime-only watcher, so no spoilers beyond what's currently aired (eps 1-3) + mild map spoilers for a random 3.5e D&D module (Sunless Citadel).

- I'm not the first nor will I be the last to harp on the English localised title but Delicious in Dungeon sucks. I do, however, think going with the "DnD" naming scheme was a nugget of a good idea (let's face it, "Dungeon Food" sucks too). Maybe "Diners in Dungeon"/"Dungeons & Diners" instead (as in those who dine, not a place where one dines). Or "Dungeon Dine" (like "dungeon dive"). Regardless, I'll just be calling it Dungeon Meshi going forward.

- I don't know if this is coloured by me going into this series with the knowledge that Ryoko Kui loves Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 or a wider ripple effect of eastern dungeon-fantasy conventions being shaped by there not being an official Japanese translation of D&D between Basic and 5e, but the world-building's vibe is old-school D&D as hell. It feels like it was written by someone who maybe never got the chance to play the tabletop game much but spent hours poring over the 1e Monster Manual in hopes of getting a campaign off the ground (and ended up penning a manga instead, game scheduling be damned). There's the disarming of traps, feeling for secret doors, and even the iconic red dragon as seen on the covers of the Basic Dungeon Master's Handbook and 1e Monster Manual being the dungeon boss. Design-wise, the dungeon's layout it reminds me a bit of the map from Ruins of Castle Greyhawk or The Sunless Citadel (pictured below, right).

- The main cast is very tropey at the moment. Quite literally all the Basic classes are covered; the generic white man Fighter (Lv 1, no multi-attack yet :P) as the party face, the halfling/thief, the elf/wizard, the missing cleric, the dwarf... This works for this point in the narrative but doesn't make me particularly attached to any of them. They need another overarching obstacle.

- I generally don't like Studio Trigger's output (not the Imaishi-involved stuff anyway; Gridman fucks) but I respect how bouncy their animation usually is. So, I was excited to watch something animated by Trigger but not (originally) written by them. Dungeon Meshi, however, looks static and resorts too often to Dutch angles to maintain visual interest. There's a bit of an art shift in episode 3 where this improves; more fun "off-model" moments, the movements get a little bouncier, more color harmony. Hopefully, this stays and isn't just a guest director fluke. Form the snippets I've seen on the manga, Kui suffers a bit from "draw background killed my grandma", thus her ability to make her simple character designs emote well has to carry the page. The anime does the opposite; super detailed backgrounds but flat shading/lack of texture on the characters creates a need for them to over-emote with a "screen-shake" effect in order to stand out from their surroundings, which I could see getting old fast. The main event, the food, looks better in the anime than in the manga due to colour and animation bringing it to life.

- I don't usually laugh at Japanese comedies because they're either too slapstick for my tastes or too pun heavy for my JP comprehension level. Dungeon Meshi gets a point for making me "lol" more than once.

- Finally, a good panty shot:

- I watched episode 3 dubbed. EN Marcille > JP Marcille (I say this as a stickler for subs). The rest of the dub cast is fine but I'm probably sticking with JP because JP Laios' ability to scream > EN Laios (EN is a great generic white man, though). I'm not familiar with most of the JP voice cast. I think Chilchuck is my fave in JP.

Both languages have little breathing room between lines of dialog and I was hoping the EN dub would play around with the fact that the character speaking isn't necessarily the one on screen (thus less lip-flap matching, especially for Senshi, who has few indicators that he's actually speaking even when he's onscreen) but alas. I'll do another one of these if I have more to say later in the season 🥂

[stubborngods]

tav screenshot dump (with who they're romancing and their class and some lore about them if i cant rmbr it hehe)!! you Will see a theme i have a type in character lol

promise! asmodeus tiefling, my beloved slightly-reformed durge, weird little circle of the land druid; main romance is astarion and they're just a little feral together. they definitely met astarion in the city before but don't ask me when rn i am still trying to figure it out.

ruin! asmodeus tiefling, warlock of the archfey (pact of the chain, but i haven't completely decided who their patron is yet); was created to be a wyll romance but i never got her off the ship so we'll see where that goes lol. i do know that bestie is not from baldur's gate.... i want her to be from the hell city that i can't fucking spell the name of

ever! another tiefling but zariel variant this time, life domain cleric of selune! was made to be a shadowheart romance but she has two hands so she's also a halsin romance. she's from the same selune sanctum that shadowheart was in as a child before getting stolen by sharians so she has very vague memories of shadowheart and was immediately like "we are best friends now" and shadowheart was like "... no"

zeki! my darling my beloved! mephistopheles tiefling, college of lore bard, baldurian born and raised; gale romancer!! zeki was a child in bg when her house was burned down in an act of violence against hjer family - be it because they were tieflings or because she had three parents, she doesn't know - but she and her brothers lived on the streets for a while before they all got separated (the oldest was arrested and the older was beaten by guards) and so she just kind of.... existed on the streets for years.

anluryn! fun fact this was my first ever tav and i still haven't made it to act three with her lol. anyways! seldarine drow, she's my lae'zel romancer, they can learn about this weird world together hehe

myriell! high elf durge, tempest domain cleric of talos, i think she was originally going to be a gale ship and then i stopped playing with her lol

liriel! high elf, monk (way of the four elements)!! i literally know nothing else about her lol

xune!! loath-sworn drow, beast master ranger! made to romance our favorite drow lady, minthara!! some facts about her: her full name/title is lady xune mizzrym of menzoberranzan. house mizzrym is not as old as some of the other drow houses but it's still quite old. she is the youngest of her mother's children; i haven't named her siblings yet but i know there are at least three but likely more and some of them are male. she and minthara knew each other as children but it's been a hell of a long time since then. she has a pet giant wolf spider! it's name is alariat ("feast of death" in undercommon)!

i have another tav named miz'ri (misery) who's another loath-sworn drow and a durge who was supposed to romance karlach but they're on the multiplayer save on my friend's computer (which is broken rn) so i do not have any screenies of them unfortunately :(( i was running out of screenshot room on this post anyways whoops; if i mange to find screenies of miz'ri in my dms with said friend i'll post them tho

[wretcheddthing]

wait hold on you GOTTA tell me about guy heroic (and also mercury and the others 👀)

OKAY Quick Rundown

Guy Heroic: Human Fighter, Battle Master i think (i lost his character sheet it's been a HOT minute). Guy Heroic is my silly attempt to make the most BASIC D&D Character of all time. Noble background, he's a prince. He likes cartography. His personal mission is to hunt down and kill a dragon that attacked his kingdom, but as far as I can tell not all is what it seems! His parents aren't as charitable as they present themselves! His new friend Ultyn is teaching him about communism :)

Mercury: Tiefling artificer, she's an alchemist :) Forgot her background, I have her sheet somewhere but I'm lazy. They make alchemical bombs :) Big fan of explosives and volatile substances. They were responsible for a workshop explosion that killed their younger sister, Cobalt, so they're working toward finding a more stable form of explosive that won't overload unaccompanied. But also she trades with a lot of shady individuals to get her hands on hard to obtain materials. i actually have an unfinished reference sheet for her

Zelmae: She's my everything. She was my everything long before Venali was incepted. Zelmaeeeee my girl. Half-elf cleric of Muflene, a made up goddess for my dear friend @pricemarshfield's campaign setting. Zelmae is a Pacifist, has (had?) a girlfriend named Daphne, and grew up really really secluded. She took a vow of silence at a young age, but was exiled from her home for Reasons (hello other players who don't know). She's not bound to that vow any more and doesn't really want to honor it anymore after everything, but having not spoken for so long, her voice is shot. She communicates almost exclusively with sign language. Also, she's having a generally Pretty Bad Time where she doesn't know how much faith she has anymore <3 Rough for a cleric. I don't have any current art for her, she needs to have a redesign.

Tozra Cardove: Half-elf bard, college of swords, entertainer background. He's my Wyll romance tav and I don't know too terribly much about him other than he's had a crush on Wyll and is a little starstruck in meeting him - the famed Blade of Frontiers ! I'm not very far in that save yet bc I'm still playing Venali for the third time ;-;. I'll get there.

Ninasi Mavaro: I've forgotten just about everything about her outside of vibes. Drow rogue thief. She has a casual relationship with murder as well, but she's not like. Into it. There's no satisfaction there. I gotta find out where I wrote all of this stuff down, her character sheet is Somewhere.

Lilfi Zinwyse Sona Heslin "Limbo" "Seeker" Lastreach: Gnome rogue, goes by Seeker, she's a treasure hunter! She's sort of a predecessor to Venali in those terms bc Ven's backstory borrowed a little bit from Seeker. Not much, but definitely some commonalities in terms of Shit Went Down in some old ruins, but man. idk. Seeker kinda stopped there in terms of development other than she wants to travel but her family are really deep in some woods and don't want her to. They want her to stay and help, but she wants to go out and explore (and steal objects to sell to bring money back to her clan.)

Micha "Bane" Folkor: Gnome cleric of Helm i believe. They grew up noble in a large city (i forgot which one i said bc i wrote it well before i learned more about forgotten realms lore). Their father was an inventor and merchant and that's where the family wealth came from. They weren't set with some of the practices being used to uphold that wealth, so they left to try to spread some good in the world.

I have PLANY more but my memory for them is way worse than it is for some of these guys :)

[ghoulsmuses]

💘👣

💘 Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Who was your first? Who is it now presently?

100% dsjkfjkdf i thiiiink my first like..real crush that i can remember was shego from kim possible LMAO

right now though? that's a tough one because i think i have a few from different fandoms sdfgdsfjk kojiro, kishibe, aki, gojo, dabi...the list is longer but i'll just go with those right now.

👣 How many OCs do you have? Which one is your favorite and why?

I have a lot more than is mentioned on this blog but for the sake of brevity, i'll just go with who's here. so, that number is thirty. 16 of those are d&d ocs, 14 of those are fandom ocs.

this gets long so i'll put my favourites under a cut.

of the fandom ocs, i think my favourites are:

naoyuki fujimura - he was the first OC i made for sk8 and i really adore him. i don't get to use him a whole lot but his personality and vibes are something i'm really proud of

hiromi tanaka - my chainsaw man OC. i still haven't finished her carrd yet but i put a lot of work into her so i'm excited to have her fully fleshed out eventually and hopefully get to use her more!

takashi shindo - my absolute BABY BOY i love the way he's developed and i think he's just a very neat character. there's so much about him that i still need to get out in headcanons posts but aaaaa my boy

kaede chinen - bastard boy. bastard. but god i love him sfdgdjsfjkdg he's so snarky and he toes the line of arrogance at times but he's just unapologetically himself and he doesn't allow anyone to change him drastically.

katsumi kyan - she's a menace but she's so cute and i love her so much. she's going to be the reason reki gets his grey hairs early fkjfdsjk but she's so fun and she's just a little spitfire

for d&d ocs:

mihai keove - my half elf light cleric of lathander. she's been through so so much in her backstory but she's kept her kindness and her heart. a lot of her can sort of be summed up by the saying "there's bravery in being soft". she's never lost that desire to wake up every day and be kind and take care of people. even with the loss she's experienced, she's never once let it turn her bitter. she's an incredibly strong woman and she's absolutely my favourite d&d character.

lark grey - lark is...so much fun fgjksfdjkg they're my exhausted enby human death warlock who can be summed up by "god won't let me die" except it's not god, it's death. basically, in the world lark is originally from, death works sort of like a corporation. you line up, meet death and he sends you through the big ol' doors to the afterlife unless you can bribe him to come back. lark, in life, worked for a coporation as well LMAO and so when he got his turn with death, death (aka harold) was like "ayo? i like your resume? how about you work for me instead?" and lark was like "if it means i don't have to die then yeah."

reno laedridal - screaming crying foaming at the mouth because i can never shut up about reno. reno is the first d&d character i ever made. my half elf brute fighter who can be summed up by "*smacks arm* this bad boy can fit so much trauma into him". he's morally grey, from the undercity and worked as a bouncer for a crime lord. he has some attachment issues and is a bit emotionally stunted but by god he's got a good heart under all the walls.

zikri suhaila - THE ULTIMATE BABY BOY. my half demon archfey warlock entertainer. he gets mistaken for a bard a lot because of his vibes and it absolutely frustrates him to no end but he can't be too mad about it because he definitely gets it. his mom is a former musician turned music teacher and his father is a retired adventurer which is where he got his desire to start adventuring from. he has a little brother named rahim. zikri is very charming and flirty.

[gascon-en-exil]

Dark Deity Pre-Release Character Opinions

This isn't actually a tier list, but someone helpfully created a template for this game and it's as good a way as any to do a little visual showcase for this cast. Characters are listed by their class sets, which are fixed but offer a nice variety in terms of promotion options. My opinions on each are as follows, from left to right in each row. Most characters have introductory profiles written up on the DD subreddit, if you'd like to check them out yourself.

Warriors

Alexa

You know those buff female blacksmiths in Echoes and Three Houses that some people wish were playable characters? That's pretty much Alexa. Can't say I'm too hyped about her myself, but warrior + tomboyish female character will do that for me...or not do it, I suppose.

Benji

Seems to have been written to become a meme, and I still can't decide whether that's clever or stupid. Kind of like Raphael only with a bigger emphasis on training than on eating, and with brotherly devotion replaced with brotherly angst that might theoretically go somewhere if the character isn't reduced to being a goofy joke all the time.

Fenton

Doesn't have a character profile, so as far as I know he's just a generic dwarf because DD swaps out its inspiration's loli dragons and other vaguely fetishistic shapeshifters for the two most cliché non-human races in Western fantasy. I wonder whether his VA will voice him with a Scottish accent, to go all in on the (ironic?) laziness. There are a handful of elves in the playable cast, but Fenton is the only dwarf so for better or worse he's representing.

Helena

She's the embodiment of the FE exotic swordswoman archetype, but curiously DD seems to have turned that broad ethnic brush inward. Helena's last name is apparently a Japanese verb, her art shows her with a spear (as in the association of the naginata with women), and she studied and trained in a monastery that seems to blend elements of Buddhism and Shintoism. Not sure how all that fits into the larger setting yet, but at this point she's still got more background development than Petra.

Irving

Our Hero, the one front and center on the cover art. He sounds a bit on the blander side as far as lords or lord equivalents go, with his most promising hook for me being his established friendship with Garrick (see the ranger section). At best I can hope for a bit of a romantic friendship dynamic, although they sound a bit rougher overall as they're military academy schoolmates I wonder why DD went with that instead of lordlings of different territories.

Rogues

Brooke

Looks like Camilla; has a backstory like Niles. Cleavage aside though the sexual element of both is toned down here, and there might be some sapphic bodyguard shenanigans to be had as her current employers are a pair of highborn sisters further down this list.

Cia

For some reason she reminds me of Tressa from Octopath Traveler, only bustier and a bartender rather than a merchant. She's still just a small town girl with big city dreams, and this being a tactical war game following those dreams will inevitably involve stabbing people.

Corvan

Hard to judge him at the moment, as his profile was only the second written and so isn't terribly detailed. He's a moon elf with scholarly interests, apparently. Still, as of right now he's the only rogue who doesn't slot loosely into either a ninja/assassin or pirate aesthetic, so that's kind of neat. Also, he's one of several characters to have FEH-esque beach fanart made of them already, so clearly someone's into elf twinks.

Ford

A former officer at the military academy Irving attends and a smuggler who dotes on his niece, Ford has major dad energy. Per developer reveals he's also bi, and as I mentioned before I'm totally fine with that. More bear sex, please - but what guy in this cast would hop in the sack with Ford? Only time will tell. His personal skill makes him extra dodgy, which combined with the mug of booze in his art makes me think of WoW brewmasters who dodge-tank through the power of being wasted.

Wren

Like Brooke, he's an assassin from a foreign nation - in his case the same one as Helena so presumably he's a not!Japanese ninja. I'm not really feeling him at the moment. What is it about Hao'Fen (the city/territory he and Helena come from) and massive families? That comes up in both their backstories.

Rangers

Caius

I feel like this is the third or fourth character to grow up in some slum or other; at least they've all been in different towns so far. The relative rarity of noble characters is certainly different from FE, but it reduces the political stakes which leaves me wondering a bit about the story. Anyway, Caius is a small town desert hunter who learned how to make arrows out of animal bones. How aerodynamic is bone, I wonder?

Garrick

Irving's BFF and seemingly the Hector to Irving's Eliwood, only with more flirting (his intro doesn't specify that Garrick is flirting with women, but I'm not going so far as to say that indicates anything). He's the academy headmaster's son, with a strained relationship with his father for some of that hotheaded lead tension. Notably, his VA is the one I'm most familiar with in this cast, as he's the voice of Revali from Breath of the Wild as well as love interests in two different erotic gay dating sims I've played. In other words, I know what this guy sounds like making awkwardly simulated sex noises...and I have no idea what to do with that information.

Maeve

She's a half-elf with a very storied background, so much so that it's all rather hard to follow her exploits when little of what's being described has been fully revealed yet. I'm expecting her to be a mid/lategame recruit, unless she's dropped in early on to reveal that (sun) elves exist or something.

Rose

Imagine if Bernadetta were a commoner, although we can only hope they'll be less screaming. Alternatively, Neimi without an obvious boyfriend. She won the beach contest so now she has official swimsuit art, which I guess makes her a top-tier waifu in the eyes of players who care about such things.

Sophia

A ranger in the "has animal companions" sense, although whether that will come into play mechanically aside from her personal skill - Butter the ferret can attack with her! - remains to be seen. Her preference for the company of animals is explained by a lack of social graces, so prepare for klutz-related humor. Of note to those interested in F/F is that her introduction specifically brings up her connection with Sloane (see the mage section) and how close the two of them are.

Clerics

Faust

Doesn't have a profile yet, so not much to go off other than his decidedly unhinged look. The cleric class set does feature some darker-flavored options, so presumably he's more naturally aligned with those. His VA was announced to be the YouTuber behind So This is Basically Fire Emblem and other similar videos, so I'm picturing a kooky and somewhat demented Henry type.

Lincoln

Also lacks a profile at time of writing...clerics get so little love. The Discord has identified him a bland blond paladin sort, but as we know from the likes of Perceval and especially Dimitri that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be boring (or not gay).

Maren

The soft-spoken healer type, and also a childhood friend of Garrick although her intro sibling-zones him but then this game is inspired by FE so who knows if that'll stick. She may have some interesting thoughts on the theology of the setting, as there seem to be several faiths and she's said to have a complicated relationship with her own. I will be utterly shocked if she's not either Irving or Garrick's eventual love interest.

Samara

One of two princesses of the country of Aramor, which appears to be loosely inspired by the Middle East. Heaven help us if the Khalidstans ever get wind of this game. Unfortunately aside from her bond with her older sister (in the mage section) and the knowledge that Brooke has been hired as their bodyguard there's not much to Samara at the moment. Hopefully the clerics all do some comparative theology in their bond conversations, and this isn't like Sacred Stones where none of the clergy characters from different countries ever compare notes. The succession crisis involving Samara and her sister vs. their less-loved cousin the king's son might be a major plot hook? It's still too early to tell.

Vesta

Much like Maeve her backstory has entirely too much going on to really follow at the moment. Basically she's a human who grew up in a sun elf city because Reasons (seriously, I don't know what they are) and was called to a clerical vocation and also something about taking a journey. Has an unfortunate case of silly boob armor, which unlike a certain other character probably won't be rectified this close to release.

Mages

Alden

Maren's precocious younger brother, also basically Ricken up to and including the comically oversized hat. As a unit he follows the tradition of Donnel, Mozu, and Cyril of having a personal skill that buffs his stat gains, so it's safe to say he's a growth unit. At least he'll probably join early.

Liberty

Comes with dead brother angst and a connection to the "aspects" system that will hopefully make more sense once I've played the game and know how it functions both mechanically and from a storytelling perspective. Otherwise she looks to be a busty older - as in, not a teenage - mage in the vein of Calill.

Monroe

Got the first ever character profile, so it's really short. He's the son of a duke and sounds like a bit of a snob, albeit one that can make explosions happen to back up his haughtiness. He's got some scarring around his eye that surely must come with a story. Someone also made featured fanart of him in Heroes summer banner style, so I guess he's got somebody horny already.

Sara

Samara's half-sister, with comparable fantasy Middle Eastern flavoring. Has an interest in discovering magical artifacts and being a just ruler in the event she winds up on the throne (so, almost definitely), and she and Samara travel around with the assassin Brooke as their bodyguard. There's maybe some lesbian possibilities there? Either way, Sara has enough development where I could see her as a major supporting character.

Sloane

Comes with a genuinely fascinating backstory involving manipulative double-crossing parents, an education in the cruelties and deceptions of social life (reflected in her personal skill), and disinheritance - and yet it's all likely to be overshadowed because she may go down as DD's equivalent to Fates's face-touching. Her initial art is even more revealing than Camilla's, and while the developers later gave her a more modest redesign after negative feedback I get the feeling that this controversy may live on. Her introduction mentions her hunting for both heirs and heiresses and she's now been linked to Sophia, so safe to say she's another confirmed bi character.

Adepts

While the other class sets are standard fantasy fare adepts require a bit more explanation. They have innate magical abilities and appear to be feared and distrusted most places in the setting. Functionally they remind me of adepts from the Golden Sun series, if anyone is familiar with those games. The classes in the adept group tend more toward physical/magical hybridization than those of other sets, so that will probably be their mechanical niche. Oh, and their default weapon type is lances, which is a plus in my book.

Aurima

Along with Caius and the royal sisters, he's another one from the desert nation of Aramor. An arena fighter who got touched by a god in what I assume was a non-sexual way and came out of it with a new appearance and adept powers. Also, he's confirmed to be over 40 - how often do you see that in games like this?

Bianca

Looks like a more carefree Mathilda from Echoes. She's a ranking officer in the Delian army which sounds like it'd sit uneasily with her adept powers. Her profile describes Lincoln as her close friend, which is still about the most we know about him at this point.

Elias

This guy's writing plays more into the fairly standard coding that comes with adept powers, as we know they manifested shortly before he was going to confess his feelings to a male paramour and afterwards he was forced to flee his homeland and wander the world. He also spent time among dwarves, so insert short bear jokes here? In the present he's attached to Cia in what seems to be a platonic way; maybe she's a fruit fly, or maybe she just likes having a friend who can light drunken assholes on fire? Elias is definitely into guys, but I would still be a little surprised if he turned out to be totally gay as that's such a rarity in these sorts of things.

Iris

Oof, another lengthy and rough backstory. Iris had better parents than Sloane, but she also had to deal with permanent facial scarring (hence the mask) after a bandit kidnapping and the stigma of manifesting as an adept pretty much eliminating the prospects of her making a good political marriage. Also, she and Elias both come from Neullais, which is prominently featured on the continental map on the DD subreddit but doesn't seem to come up all too often in backstories. I think it's a not!France? Hard to tell.

Thae'lanel

A World of Warcraft blood elf, flowing anime hair and apostrophe'd name and all. I like WoW so that's not terribly grating, but as he has no profile yet there's little else I can say. Thae'lanel is mentioned in Maeve's introduction as a member of a sun elf group called the Exiled, which I'm guessing is tied to his adept status in some way. He and Maeve form yet another adventurer/bodyguard duo.