#oc: nuzh | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

antlersish · 4 months ago

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Im obsessed w the idea of goblin tav and Wyll. The drama potential is sooooo good the possible tension etc. i would love to know more about their whole deal

OOOO BABY long essay-esque rant incoming because I could talk about them for DAYS (also my ask box is always open if you have more questions about them hehe, I promise not every one will be answered with a multi-page rant)

First of all: I'm working on making art/comics/Ao3 fics for all of this but art and writing are hard and take a long time :,) so look forwards to those lmao. Second: everybody should make a goblin tav please please please I love goblins I want to see more of them. If one more goblin tav exists because of me I can die happy.

OK splitting this into two sections: Nuzh as a character/his backstory + Nuzh's relationship with Wyll.

Nuzh's Backstory/Character Concept:

First off, I fucking love goblins and I was sad about the way BG3 treated them lmao. Seriously, like-- no good goblins? It's totally fine to kill goblin children?? (This isn't me shitting on the game, I'm biased because I'm goblin-fucker-3000 over here). I play a lot of goblin PCs in D&D, and Faerûn is the setting of "token good one" (Drizzt), so I knew I wanted to make a gob. Rogue is just my favorite class to play in 5e, so: goblin rogue.

Nuzh's character & backstory evolved over time as I played more BG3 and sunk my teeth into the lore. He's specifically from the tribe you encounter in Act 1 of BG3, and was raised in the cult of the Absolute. (I ignored canon timelines, ik that the Absolute stuff hasn't been happening for that long but in My version it's been happening for like 12-ish years).

Nuzh (originally "Nine") is Sazza's younger brother. The two were orphaned when Nuzh was around eight or nine years old, their parents having been killed by adventurers. Around this time, Gut and Ragzlin were beginning to convert to Absolutism. With the new cult taking over and no parents, Nuzh and Sazza had to grow up quick. Both learned to be valuable to the leaders to protect themselves.

Nuzh was fast, sneaky, and smart. He learned to kill quickly and silently, make explosives and traps, and generally made himself invaluable to Gut and Ragzlin. Sazza was always getting captured, so he learned to pick locks. Nuzh drank the Absolute Kool-Aid hard. He was young and vulnerable, and the cult/Gut specifically offered something to belong to. A purpose. From ten to seventeen, he was subject to a cycle of cult conditioning and abuse at the hands of Gut and Ragzlin.

At eighteen, it went wrong. Nuzh's raiding party was attacked by "a monster"-- the Dark Urge in Slayer form. In my Durge playthroughs, Nuzh died in that encounter. In my Nuzh playthrough, his raiding party was slaughtered and Nuzh barely managed to escape underground. He was badly hurt and lost and ended up stranded in the Underdark. He found a deep gnome village and broke into a house to try to find food and medical supplies, only to pass out half-dead in some random gnome's hut.

The gnomes were kind enough to fix him up/not let him die, which is why Nuzh is fond of deep gnomes. He had a massive crisis of faith at that point-- in his eyes, the goddess he'd worshiped his whole life had let his friends/family die and left him for dead. With the gnomes, Nuzh spent a lot of time learning artificing and helping them defend their village from duegar-- initially as repayment, but then he started to like, learn morals lol. He also began to break some of the cult programming once he was out of his pack's environment.

Nuzh spent the next four years basically wandering the Sword Coast & Underdark-- sticking to areas where he wouldn't be murdered on sight for being a goblin. He read every book he could get his hands on, started helping people, and started realizing that the Absolute was a lot bigger than just his tribe. With the dual goals of 1. saving his family from the cult and 2. finding out what was really going on with the Absolute, he made his way towards Moonrise in search of answers. There, he was captured by the illithids & tadpoled on board the nautiloid.

Nuzh and Wyll:

As a player, I fell in love with Wyll when I saw his dorky Smash-Bros-esque intro, without knowing his character's opinions about goblins. I decided I Needed that one. I had been planning on romancing Astarion originally lmao, so there's a universe out there where it's Nuzh/Astarion.

Nuzh and Wyll definitely have an enemies-to-lovers thing going on. Wyll sees an Absolute-cultist goblin, who saves the goblin prisoner in the Emerald Grove. Nuzh is on thin fucking ice for Wyll-- the only reasons he didn't kill him when they first met were 1-- the tadpole connection and 2-- the fact that Nuzh fought against the raiding goblins at the grove. Wyll still thinks it's pretty likely that Nuzh is a spy or traitor at worst and an amoral killer at best for most of Act 1. It doesn't help that Nuzh has a -1 to CHA and is blunt at the best of times. Meanwhile, Nuzh doesn't trust Wyll, because 1. Wyll has shown open hostility towards him and 2. Wyll is clearly keeping a lot from the group.

Some trust begins to build throughout Act 1 as Nuzh and Wyll both prove themselves to be good people lmao. They're both stubborn/hard-headed, good-aligned idiots in their early twenties, which ends up making them have more and more in common. Some key developments:

Wyll chooses not to kill Karlach and is disfigured by Mizora. This makes Nuzh trust Wyll more and begin to recognize that some of that secrecy isn't by choice, that Wyll is a guy in a shitty situation, and that Wyll will try to do the right thing even if it costs him.

Nuzh is consistently kind and loyal, even if he's not necessarily "nice". He saves Barcus from his own kin, he saves Arabella and Mirkon, he refuses to turn Astarion in to the Gur hunter, etc. Nuzh is an offputting little man, and he's grumpy and a pragmatist, but Wyll begins to see that he'll go out of his way to help people.

Nuzh learns that Wyll is a Ravengard. He immediately has sympathy with the whole "can't go home" thing, but he honestly doesn't really know the significance of the Ravengard name-- which means he just treats Wyll as Wyll, not as Wyll Ravengard, son of Ulder Ravengard.

Auntie Ethel is a biiiig turning point for their dynamic. Wyll and Nuzh are the two who actively push to save Mayrina, who refuse to cave to Ethel's bargains, etc. After Ethel, their relationship goes from "begrudging respect" to some level of trust.

The goblin camp sees Nuzh confront a lot of trauma all at once. He's betrayed by his sister, he's reminded of the physical and mental abuse he went through as a teenager, he realizes that he can't really just "save" his family and change their minds. Wyll sees how hard Nuzh is trying, how complex the issue is, and how difficult it is for Nuzh. He begins to see goblins as people lol, through like-- watching Nuzh interacting with the pack, realizing that Nuzh and the goblin children were orphaned by adventurers like him, seeing Nuzh try to trust Gut and Sazza only to get betrayed.

Nuzh fully earns Wyll's trust by fighting Minthara and Sazza once Sazza reveals the location of the camp. He can't bring himself to kill his sister, but he won't let her kill innocents either.

They're both "outcasts" at the tiefling party. While the refugees are obviously grateful, Wyll is a devil-pacted warlock who looks like a monster and Nuzh is a goblin. There, they end up hiding out together and talking. They start to realize that they both like each other as people, and they're both drinking, and they end up kissing.

This is getting Really fucking long so I'm gonna shorten it down to vague summaries, lmao, but:

Rest of Act 1: shy, nervous crushes on each other and flirting. Nuzh has had sexual relationships but never romantic ones, so he's unsure of how to handle his feelings for Wyll. Wyll is feeling extremely conflicted because he's a hopeless romantic and doesn't see loving a goblin as the kind of fairytale romance he wanted, plus like. Nuzh is both a goblin and a man, and there's no way he doesn't have some internalized feelings about both of those facts. They begin to get close and really get to know each other.

Act 2: back-to-back trauma throws them for a loop. Relevant to this: I multiclass Wyll as a paladin in every run dhdhdh. Wyll has a bad fucking time during Act 2. Mizora yanks his leash again and demands he save "Zariel's asset". He learns his father is nowhere to be found at Moonrise. He breaks his paladin oath at Moonrise by striking down an "innocent"-- the warden-- in an attempt to do the right thing. He begins to spiral a little bit, because he's starting to believe that he'll never get out of his pact or repair his relationship with his father and he just ruined his "last chance" at being a good person by becoming an Oathbreaker. Nuzh, meanwhile, has his whole thing where he learns what the Absolute really is, sees Sazza again at Moonrise, and is still grappling with turning on his pack. As all of this happens, their relationship does progress, but it gets kinda messy. Like, they're making out every night but one night Wyll freaks out and pulls away and Nuzh thinks he did something wrong. They're very gentle and emotionally supportive with each other, but Wyll won't admit that he's breaking down and Nuzh doesn't have the CHA score/emotional intelligence to help. This culminates in: Wyll sort of snapping under the stress when they find Mizora and threatening to kill her unless she lets him out of his pact, even knowing that would damn him to eternity as a lemure. It's unclear if he's bluffing or not, but Mizora caves.

Act 3: After Ketheric is defeated, Wyll begins to level out. He has a tangible goal again (saving his father) and he's free from his pact, and he's started to accept the idea of Oathbreaking and of forging his own path. This is when he formally sort of accepts his feelings for Nuzh and asks him to have a real relationship. I won't get into Act 3 too much because it's mainly just the two of them like, being actual lovers, but a couple of things I will mention are: because they're both men and Nuzh is a goblin, Wyll's "proposal" is a much less "we're going to get married" thing than in canon, and more of a commitment. Nuzh and Wyll also have sex for the first time a lot earlier-- the night after killing Ketheric lol. Nuzh freaks out at Ulder over how Ulder treated Wyll after they rescue him, and Wyll very kindly tells him to back down. Ulder in general has very conflicting feelings about Nuzh lol. They end up having the Blade of Avernus ending, and definitely adopt like 7 stray children as wards.

ANYWAYS I'm so sorry this is so fucking long DHDHDH ik you didn't ask for an essay BUT I have a lot of thoughts about them...

#oc: nuzh #tav: nuzh #goblin tav #nuzh lore #ask #long post #nuzhwyll #nuzh backstory #infodump lmao #sorry for the rant #bg3 spoilers #im not kidding this is LONG

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antlersish · 3 months ago

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Ok ok ok new pinned post! Will update as needed >:]

Hello! I’m Ant 🐜 or Antler 🦌. Early 20s, queer, he/him but I don’t really care. I’m a (amateur) digital artist who draws mostly fantasy content & goblins— lately it’s been a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3 fanart so that’s what you’re primarily gonna get lol.

Warning! I am a weird freak! I love being a weird freak! I’m also a yapper! I always try to properly tag stuff but if I mess up don’t hesitate to lmk!

LINKS:

Linktree w/ everything

Bluesky (18+ warning)

Ko-Fi

FAQ:

“Can I use your ‘protect your herd’ or ‘bash back’ art for X reason?”

Yes! I consider that art open-source/public domain. Credit is appreciated but not necessary. Repost it, make it a sticker or print, make it a shirt, do whatever you want! I believe very strongly in the idea of public art/art for the people. I use the tag #open source for all my art that’s free for use! I also enable high-res downloads for these on my Ko-Fi if versions off social media download shitty/blurry— again completely free, if it doesn’t work lmk!

“Do you do commissions?”

Not currently, unfortunately!! I’ve never offered commissions before & I would like to get my art more consistent in terms of quality before I try. If I do open commissions, I’ll probably start with some YCHs to get the hang of things before jumping straight into customs. Thank you to the people who reached out, though!! I’m flattered!!

“What program/brushes do you use?”

I use Procreate on an iPad with an Apple Pencil! In terms of brushes, I actually like to make my own. I’m working on getting all the brushes I make up on my Ko-Fi as free digital downloads currently! (Every brush set I make will always be free/pay what you want— I wouldn’t have started making art if it wasn’t for free resources!)

“Who is that goblin?”

I have several but the main one (the one currently as my PFP) is Nuzh, my Baldur’s Gate Tav. He’s a goblin rogue (/artificer but that’s not an option in game lol), an ex-cultist of the Absolute, and romancing Wyll. His name is pronounced like “Nooj”. I’m working on a larger info/lore card about him that I’ll link here soon! His tags: #oc: nuzh #tav: nuzh and #nuzh lore

Other goblins who may show up: Fidget, Kelp, Ory, and Vrix

“Do you have like a thing for goblins or something? You talk about them a lot…”

Shut up hwo about

#not art #intro post #about antler #pinned intro

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